Yahoo News Coronavirus world round-up: police crack down on India's 'mask violators'
Indian police are having a field day handing out fines to people who do not wear a mask during the pandemic.
Many people just cannot get used to the accessory, which has come to symbolise the new normal, having been made compulsory in most big cities.
New Delhi shared-ride driver Munish Tiwari said he had received two tickets for 500-rupee (£5.29) fines since taxis got back on the road a month ago, which had wiped out a day's earnings.
"It is just not comfortable and I cannot breathe when I have to wear it," he said.
"I have to wear it when there are passengers, but as soon as the door closes and they are gone, normally I take it off. I am easy prey for the police."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently chided the country's 1.3 billion people for being "careless" about social distancing.
India has almost 880,000 virus cases and more than 23,000 dead, and experts say the peak is still weeks away. But both rich and poor say they feel awkward or uncomfortable covering up their face.
Read more: Shoppers without face masks risk £100 fine
How 57 sailors became infected after 35 days at sea a mystery
Argentina is trying to solve a medical mystery after 57 sailors were infected with the coronavirus after 35 days at sea, despite the entire crew testing negative before leaving port.
The Echizen Maru fishing trawler returned to port after some of its crew began exhibiting symptoms typical of Covid-19, the health ministry for the southern Tierra del Fuego province said on Monday.
According to the ministry, 57 sailors, out of 61 crew members, were diagnosed with the virus after undergoing a new test. Tokyo boy-band concert linked to latest outbreakHowever, all of the crew members had undergone 14 days of mandatory quarantine at a hotel in the city of Ushuaia. Prior to that, they had negative results, the ministry said in a statement.
"It's hard to establish how this crew was infected, considering that for 35 days, they had no contact with dry land and that supplies were only brought in from the port of Ushuaia," said Alejandra Alfaro, the director of primary health care in Tierra del Fuego.
A team was examining "the chronology of symptoms in the crew to establish the chronology of contagion," she said.
Opposition leader quits weeks before election
The leader of New Zealand's opposition National Party has resigned just over two months before a general election and only 53 days after he took charge of the right-of-centre party.
Todd Muller said he was stepping down "effective immediately" following a scandal that has embroiled the party in recent weeks. It was revealed that a junior lawmaker leaked private health details of New Zealand Covid-19 patients to news media.
The party has struggled to dent the popularity of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, whose government has high approval ratings for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. New Zealand has gone 73 days without a case of community transmission and has suffered a low toll of 22 deaths.
Read more: Muller quits weeks before general election and only 53 days since he got job
No evidence virus spreads in schools
Schools do not play a major role in spreading the coronavirus, according to the results of a German study released on Monday.
The study, the largest carried out on schoolchildren and teachers in Germany, found traces of the virus in fewer than 1 per cent of teachers and children.
Scientists from Dresden Technical University said they believe children may act as a “brake” on chains of infection.
Prof Reinhard Berner, the head of pediatric medicine at Dresden University Hospital and leader of the study, said the results suggested the virus does not spread easily in schools.
“It is rather the opposite,” Prof Berner told a press conference. “Children act more as a brake on infection. Not every infection that reaches them is passed on.”
Read more: German study suggests schools don't spread virus
Trump attacks top disease expert
Donald Trump and his aides have taken aim at the president's top health adviser as coronavirus cases continue to surge across 39 US states.
Mr Trump retweeted several posts critical of Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House coronavirus task force's lead adviser, and other health experts within his administration on Monday, appearing to confirm reports of a divide between the US president and his top advisers on the pandemic.
Mr Trump shared unfounded accusations by a former game show host that "everyone is lying," including the country's doctors and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the lead agency in the pandemic response.
"The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust," Chuck Woolery wrote in his tweet.
Read more: Trump takes aim at Fauci as cases surge
Ted Cruz pictured without mask on plane
American Airlines said it had contacted Republican Senator Ted Cruz about its coronavirus prevention policies after a photo of the Texas lawmaker without a mask on a flight went viral on social media.
"While our policy does not apply while eating or drinking, we have reached out to Senator Cruz to affirm the importance of this policy as part of our commitment to protecting the health and safety of the traveling public," AA said in a statement.
Aides to Mr Cruz told US media that he was drinking a coffee at the time the photo was snapped. The senator is holding a coffee cup and a telephone in the photo, but there is no mask in sight.
"For the well-being of our customers and team members, we require face coverings to be worn onboard," AA said. "We expect our customers to comply with our policies when they choose to travel with us."
Captured today at 10:45am — @TedCruz on a commercial flight, refusing to wear a mask. pic.twitter.com/h8DM7J4CMi
— Hosseh (@hossehenad) July 13, 2020
Catalan outbreak reignites power tensions
A localised outbreak of Covid-19 in Spain is reigniting tensions around Catalan independence amid a political squabble over what powers the regional government has to deal with the health emergency.
As cases soared in the city of Lleida and surrounding areas, the Catalan government placed around 160,000 people under a strict lockdown earlier this month, but a judge overturned that order late on Sunday night.
Catalan leader Quim Torra claimed his region was being discriminated against and urged people to observe the restrictions even though they lacked legal force.
“If some court wants to prevent us from protecting our citizens’ health, we wish to enjoy people’s collaboration,” Mr Torra, Catalonia’s pro-independence president, said on Monday.
“We don’t accept the decision”, Mr Torra said, pointing to the fact that judicial bodies had in recent days backed controversial decisions by two other Spanish regions which barred people who had tested positive for Covid-19 from taking part in local elections on Sunday.
Read more: Outbreak reignites calls for Catalan independence
Boy-band concert linked to latest outbreak in Tokyo
Tokyo health officials appealed on Tuesday for more than 800 theatregoers to get tested after a production starring Japanese boy-band members was found to be the source of at least 20 cases.
As the number of virus infections continues to rise in Japan's capital city, the Tokyo government said it was focussing on a 190-seat theatre in the Shinjuku entertainment district, where infections have also been traced to cabaret clubs.
The latest cluster has been traced to Theatre Moliere, near Tokyo's red-light district, which staged a play for six days starring mainly up-and-coming boy-band members earlier this month.
The Tokyo government said it learned of the first infection among a cast member on July 6, after which testing found 20 related cases by late on Monday.
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One million people in the Morocco's northern city of Tangiers are locked down again after the appearance of epidemic hotspots
Latin America has leapfrogged the United States and Canada to become the world's second-worst affected region for coronavirus deaths, according to AFP tally. With 144,758 deaths officially declared, the region is now behind only Europe with 202,505 deaths. Brazil accounts for almost half of Latin America's recorded fatalities.
The International Monetary Fund has cut its economic forecast for Middle East and North Africa to its lowest level in 50 years, over the "twin shock" of the pandemic and low oil prices. The region's economy is tipped to contract by 5.7 per cent this year, and by as much as 13 per cent in countries torn by conflict, the IMF warned.
Sri Lanka has ordered schools to shut nationwide, just a week after they re-opened, following a surge in new cases. The country has reported just 2,617 cases with 11 deaths, but army chief Shavendra Silva said that nearly half the 1,100 residents and staff at a drug rehab facility near the capital have tested positive in the past week.
Three pubs in Sydney, and its surroundings have been closed after being linked to outbreaks or failing to comply with Australia's social distancing requirements, while other events are under investigation after of a major outbreak in Melbourne.
Up to 9.7 million children affected by school closures due to the pandemic are at risk of never going back to class, Save the Children has warned. Citing Unesco data, the charity said that, in April, 1.6 billion young people were shut out of school and university due to Covid-19 measures - about 90 per cent of the world's entire student population.
