The Times - UK (2020-07-28)

10 2GM Tuesday July 28 2020 | the times

News

South Africans left jobless and home-

less by the pandemic have resorted to

building shacks in new squatter camps

with such apposite names as Sanitiser,

Covid and Corona Village.

A surge in informal settlements,

particularly around Cape Town, has

drawn a tough response from officials.

Dan Plato, the mayor, said: “The city,

together with law enforcement

agencies, is doing its best to thwart the

attempts but it is mostly large-scale,

Homeless South Africans set up shacks in ‘Corona Village’

well-planned, well-funded and orches-

trated invasions.”

However, some impoverished resi-

dents say they have nowhere else to go,

after losing their jobs and then their

homes because they could not pay rent.

On a nature reserve near Cape Town

International Airport, hundreds of

plots have been informally mapped out

for corrugated iron shacks in two areas

— Sanitiser and Covid. Other clusters

are called Corona Village and Virus. All

of the residents face eviction.

Issues around land rights in South

Africa, one of the world’s most unequal

countries, have become more pressing

during the pandemic. A viral video this

month showed an eviction in which a

man was dragged naked from his shack,

where he had been bathing.

“This action does not belong to the

democratic South Africa,” the South

African Human Rights Commission

said. It has launched a court challenge

against the City of Cape Town, arguing

that the evictions are in violation of

coronavirus lockdown regulations.

The pandemic has worsened what

was already set to be a tough 12 months.

South Africa is struggling to recover

after years of corruption under Jacob

Zuma, the previous president.

More than three million people have

lost their jobs since the lockdown began

in late March, according to university

researchers. Unemployment in South

Africa is officially 30 per cent, rising to

50 per cent when “discouraged work-

ers” who have given up looking for

work are included.

Cape Town has seen days of protests

over job losses and the tearing down of

shacks by city officials. On Monday the

city was again rocked by demonstra-

tions that included burning barricades

on major roads.

“We had to move, but we had no-

where else to move as we do not have

the money to rent,” a man who had lost

his job told the Cape Argus. “That’s why

we decided to move to an empty field

behind a local school. We were not

infringing on anyone.”

President Ramaphosa yesterday

warned South Africans: “The path to

recovery will be long and difficult.”

Erin Conway-Smith Johannesburg

News Coronavirus

Trump looks

to vaccine as

a booster in

election race

David Charter Washington

President Trump is focusing on the

search for a coronavirus vaccine in an

attempt to turn the crisis into a vote-

winner after months of bad poll figures.

Before the election in November his

campaign advisers want to turn the

national conversation towards the eco-

nomic recovery and American innova-

tion behind therapeutics and vaccines,

and away from the president’s much-

criticised handling of the outbreak.

The first advanced US vaccine trials

began yesterday but Mr Trump faced

another setback when Robert O’Brien,

his national security adviser, became

the most senior administration figure

to test positive. The White House said

that Mr O’Brien, 54, was working

remotely and had mild symptoms.

“There is no risk of exposure to the

president or the vice-president,” it said.

Deaths in the US neared 146,

yesterday in a resurgence widely attrib-

uted to the rush — at Mr Trump’s en-

couragement — to resume activity

before the outbreak was under control.

The president visited a biotech com-

pany in North Carolina yesterday as

part of the new strategy. He wore a mask

while touring the facility, but he did not

wear one when he gave his briefing in

front of the cameras.

Most polling shows Mr Trump, 74,

trailing his Democratic rival Joe Biden,

77, by double digits. Mr Trump said that

the White House’s Operation Warp

Speed would deliver a vaccine in “record

time”. He added: “Therapeutically we

are very very advanced; you’ll be hear-

ing about it a lot more in the next two

weeks. We will achieve a victory over

the virus by unleashing America’s scien-

tific genius, which is what it is.”

He said years had been

“shaved off” vaccine develop-

ment without compromising

safety. Mr Trump also said

that the mortality rate had

fallen dramatically since the

early days of the virus thanks to

therapeutics. Asked if he was

trying to exude a new sense

of optimism, Mr

Trump said: “It is

about that and it’s

also the vaccine

... is coming

along really well.” This was the thinking

behind the relaunch of daily virus

briefings last week. After a break of

more than two months the president

delivers them on his own in the White

House. Advisers hope that he will soon

be able to announce good news on treat-

ments and inoculation.

Mr Trump’s visit coincided with the

start of the first “phase three” vaccine

trial in America, the fourth in the world

after similar progress by the Astra-

zeneca-Oxford University project and

two in China. The first volunteers in Sa-

vannah, Georgia, received injections

developed by the biotechnology com-

pany Moderna and the National Insti-

tute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The trial aims to enrol 30,000 adults

and evaluate the safety of the vaccine

and whether it can prevent Covid-19.

Volunteers will receive two 100mcg in-

jections of either the vaccine or a place-

bo 28 days apart.

The difficulties in resuming normal

activity were underlined when the Mi-

ami Marlins baseball team abandoned

their opening home game against the

Baltimore Orioles after 14 of their team

— 12 players and two coaches — tested

positive for the virus. Florida remains

one of the US hotspots where a push to

reopen and lax observance of mask-

wearing have been blamed for a surge

of the virus. Dr Deborah Birx, the

Trump administration’s coronavirus

response co-ordinator, said that Ken-

tucky and several nearby states should

reinstate bar closures and restrictions

on public gatherings. Tennessee was

among four states, including Alaska,

Louisiana and Oklahoma, recording

single-day highs for new cases.

With weekly booster payments of

$600 to millions of laid-off Americans

due to expire on Friday, Senate

Republicans announced proposals

to cut the amount to $200, setting

up a clash with Democrats to get

new legislation agreed. The

Republican proposal also includes

another round of direct payments of

$1,200 for low and middle-income

Americans.

Robert O’Brien is

the most senior

Trump official to

test positive

REUTERS

Sick workers

fuelling rise

in infections

authorities are organising an airlift

of 80,000 visitors, most of them

domestic tourists, after three more

cases were confirmed.

united states

Tailors emerging from the lockdown

have reported a new area of growth:

the waistline alterations

department. Some tailors have

seen clients lose weight during the

pandemic, especially those who

“used to wine and dine and eat out

regularly”, said Zach Uttich, co-

founder of BLVDier clothiers in

Chicago. For others, being at home

has taken a toll. “Some have

gained really a lot,” said Alan

Horowitz, proprietor of Alan

David in Manhattan. One

customer whose new suit did not

fit his post-lockdown figure

declared he would “keep it as

motivation to lose weight”.

south korea

The US ambassador to South

Korea has defused bitter

resentment over his moustache by

shaving it off, six months after it

was denounced as a symbol of

Japanese colonialism.

Harry Harris, 63, was accused of

having facial hair reminiscent of

the governor-generals who ruled

Korea when it was a Japanese

colony. The resemblance was all

the more sensitive because Mr

Harris’s mother was a Japanese

American. He ended the debate by

explaining he had shaved as a

precaution against both summer

heat and the coronavirus.

“Glad I did this,” Mr Harris

wrote in Twitter. “For me it was

either keep the ’stache or lose the

mask. Summer in Seoul is way too

hot & humid for both. #COVID

guidelines matter & I’m a masked

man!”

Global cases 16,096,

Global deaths 646,

World update

Countries

reporting

most deaths

Source: WHO

US 4,163,892 145,982 440

Brazil 2,394,513 86,449 407

UK 300,111 45,759 674

Mexico 385,036 43,374 336

Italy 245,864(*246k) 35,102(*35,112) 581

India 1,435,453 32,771 24

France 169,222(*183k) 30,078(*30,209) 461

Spain 272,421(*278k) 28,432(*28,434) 608

Peru 379,884 18,030 547

Iran 291,172 15,700 187

Russia 812,485 13,269 91

Cases Deaths

Deaths/

1m pop

Most new cases

1

2

3

4

5

32

65

US

Brazil

India

South Africa

Colombia

UK

China Reported new cases

64,

189

11,

7, 2 5 4

685

49,

51,

*Official domestic data

A teacher and her pupil take part in a face-to-face session using plastic barriers at a kindergarten in Semarang, Indonesia

australia

Victoria, the country’s second

most populous state, has recorded

its biggest daily spike in cases

since the pandemic began. The

authorities there fear that

industries will have to be shut

down in the capital, Melbourne.

Nearly 532 new infections and

six deaths were reported yesterday.

Five of the six deaths were linked

to care homes. Almost 100 of the

new cases were people aged 80 or

over — many of them in care —

and the authorities warned that

there would be more deaths.

Daniel Andrews, Victoria’s

premier, said that people who were

going to work while sick, including

those working at care homes, were

the “biggest drivers” of the rise in

infections.

vietnam

The country has locked down the

central city of Danang after the

first local infections for more than

three months were detected over

the weekend in a country that has

enjoyed remarkable success in

quelling the pandemic. The