The Times - UK (2020-07-21)

the times | Tuesday July 21 2020 2GM 15

News

Italy tests swab that gives

accurate result in minutes

Tom Kington Rome

A coronavirus swab that gives a result

in 12 minutes and costs only €12 (£11)

has been successfully tested in Italy and

may soon be used in Italian airports as

pressure grows to swab every passenger

entering the country.

Manufactured in South Korea, the

swab was tested 1,000 times by the

northern region of Veneto and com-

pared with results from conventional,

more time-consuming testing, with of-

ficials recording only two false results.

“It looks reliable and we hope to get it

into use in Veneto by the autumn,” said

Francesca Russo, who runs the region’s

Covid-19 response team.

Conventional swabbing involves

taking mucus from the nasal cavity,

which is then analysed by trained staff

using costly machinery. The swabs

made by the South Korean firm SD Bio-

sensor come in their own kit with a sub-

stance containing Covid-19 antibodies.

When virus particles in a mucus sample

come into contact with the antibodies,

a colour strip on the kit turns red.

“Some of these types of tests don’t

work well but this one does and we are

talking to Rome’s Spallanzani hospital,

which advises the government, about

doing their own tests,” said Roberto

Rigoli, who managed the Veneto tests

at Ca’ Foncello hospital in Treviso.

A spokesman for the Lazio region,

which includes Rome, said that it was

considering using the swab to test every

arriving passenger at Fiumicino airport.

“This test would be perfect at the airport

— you could test 200 passengers getting

off a plane at once,” he said. “There is a

doubt whether the test is too sensitive

and signals low viral loads which are not

contagious, which is why we want the

Spallanzani to test it.”

Italy has slowed contagion, yet there

has been an increase in people testing

positive flying into the country. In

Rome, of 13 new infected people

registered on Sunday six had arrived

from Bangladesh, one from Iraq, two

from Pakistan and one from India. The

city has traced 205 cases in the

Bangladeshi community to people fly-

ing in from Dhaka. Italy has suspended

flights from Bangladesh and 15 other

countries including Balkan states.

Donald Trump made a public plea to

Americans last night to wear masks out

of “patriotic” duty after frustrated

Republican governors began going

behind his back in an effort to combat

coronavirus.

For months he has been reluctant to

wear a mask and criticised the way Joe

Biden, his Democratic rival, looked

when he wore one.

Earlier this month, though, Mr

Trump wore a mask bearing the presi-

dential seal on a visit to a hospital.

Yesterday he posted on Twitter a

photo of that visit, adding: “We are

United in our effort to defeat the Invis-

ible China Virus, and many people say

that it is Patriotic to wear a face

mask when you can’t so-

cially distance. There is

nobody more Patriotic

than me, your favour-

ite President!”

The message

came after Republi-

can governors

began to deal direct-

ly with Mike Pence,

instead of the presi-

dent, when co-ordinat-

ing their response to the

pandemic. Alarmed by re-

surging infections across the

country, they had increasingly begun to

break with Mr Trump by ordering resi-

dents to wear masks and re-introduc-

ing restrictions on business activity.

In late-night phone calls among

themselves the governors have traded

insights on how to defeat the pandemic

and how best to manage Mr Trump.

“The president got bored with it,”

David Carney, an adviser to Greg

Abbott, the Republican governor of

Texas, told The New York Times. He said

that Mr Abbott had begun dealing

directly with the vice-president, whom

he speaks to two or three times a week.

On a recent call with Mr Pence and

other governors Gary Herbert, the

Republican leader of Utah, said that the

News

Do the patriotic thing

and put on a mask,

Trump tells America

Henry Zeffman Washington White House needed to reverse a sense

of “complacency” about defeating the

virus. “As a responsible citizen, if you

care about your neighbour, if you love

your neighbour, let us show the respect

necessary by wearing a mask,” Mr

Herbert is reported to have told Mr

Pence, adding: “That’s where I think

you and the president can help us out.”

In Washington some senior Republi-

cans are distancing themselves from

the president’s optimism that the virus

will one day disappear. Last week Mitch

McConnell, the Senate majority leader,

said: “The straight talk here that every-

one needs to understand is this is not

going away until we get a vaccine.” Mr

McConnell said he had “total” confi-

dence in Anthony Fauci, the leading

virus expert with whom Presi-

dent Trump has feuded.

Today the president,

who for weeks has

seemed desperate to

talk about anything

but the virus, will re-

sume the daily press

conferences he held

in the early stages of

the pandemic.

As infections rose,

Mr Trump held free-

wheeling briefings from

the White House, often last-

ing more than an hour and featur-

ing combative exchanges with the

press. They petered out in April soon

after the president mused from the po-

dium about whether injecting bleach

into the lungs could kill the virus.

“I was doing them and we had a lot of

people watching, record numbers

watching in the history of cable televi-

sion,” he said yesterday in the Oval

Office during a meeting with congres-

sional Republicans. “There’s never

been anything like it.”

The resumption of the briefings

comes amid a surge in infections that is

showing little sign of abating.

land in Denmark and fly to families

countries are often viewed with

suspicion. Vaccination teams in

Karachi went door to door, flanked

by armed police, administering polio

drops into children’s mouths without

touching them, in line with virus

safety guidelines.

china

A cinema in the eastern city of

Hangzhou was the first in China to

reopen after 178 days of compulsory

closure for the industry nationwide.

To comply with distancing rules, the

cinema was only able to welcome 32

fans for A First Farewell, a 90-

minute drama. All tickets sold out

50 minutes before the show started.

Of the 60 biggest cities, 33 reopened

cinemas but Beijing kept theatres

closed because of a recent outbreak.

israel

A doctor has tested positive for

Covid-19 after initially recovering

from the disease. The doctor in Tel

Aviv, had fever, cough and muscle

pain symptoms when she tested

positive in April but tested negative

in May and June. Earlier this month

she came in contact with a

confirmed patient and later tested

positive. It is the latest in a series

of suspected reinfections that have

raised questions over how long

immunity against the virus lasts.

united states

Jack Nicklaus and his wife tested

positive for the virus but have

recovered, the golf star told a TV

interviewer. Nicklaus and his wife,

Barbara, both 80, said it took five

weeks in March and April to

recover at their home in North

Palm Beach, Florida. “We were

very lucky,” Nicklaus said.

venezuela

President Maduro reimposed a

“radical quarantine” throughout

the country. All but essential

workers will be confined to their

homes for seven days. There have

been 11,000 confirmed infections

and more than 100 deaths recently.

Knights on a

quest to keep

tourists at

safe distance

Film fans were socially distanced for a

midnight screening in Hangzhou

LISA HEINIUS/RIDDARSÄLLSKAPET TORNEAMENTUM

A

Swedish island in the

Baltic Sea has taken a

novel approach to

maintaining social

distancing among

tourists by hiring a troupe of

knights on horseback (David

Crossland writes).

In full medieval regalia, knights

from a re-enactment group greet

tourists arriving at the Gotland

island ferry terminal.

“During the week we will go on

the beach and around the city to

tourist sites,” said Dennis

Norrthon of the Torneamentum

society, which normally puts on

jousting tournaments for visitors.

Asked if there were plans to

charge at unco-operative people

with lances, Mr Norrthon said:

“No, we will just talk to people.

The response has been really good,

everyone understands and they

stand apart. It’s working.”

The Swedish government’s

relaxed approach to coronavirus,

which included allowing people to

mix in bars and restaurants and

keeping schools open, has been

blamed for a higher infection rate

than its Nordic neighbours.

The knights were hired by the

Gotland regional authority and

local businesses anxious to avoid a

spike in cases as tens of thousands

of people barred from visiting

neighbouring countries arrive for

their summer holidays.

“We think it will help to remind

people of the message that we all

know by now but which is so easy

to forget when we are distracted by

other things in the summer,” Sven

Montelius, an infectious diseases

expert for the Gotland region, said.

Sweden stands fifth in the global

league table of coronavirus deaths

per capita. A total of 5,639 people

have died in Sweden from Covid-

compared with 255 in Norway, 611

in Denmark and 328 in Finland, all

of which have populations about

half the size. A YouGov survey

showed 73 per cent of Norwegians

and 61 per cent of Danes opposed

quarantine-free entry to their

countries by Swedish tourists.

Stefan Lofven, the Swedish

prime minister, said last week that

he believed that the country’s

strategy remained appropriate.

The re-enactment group is

reminding visitors to the

Swedish island of Gotland

that they must observe

social distancing rules

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