The Times - UK (2020-07-31)

12 2GM Friday July 31 2020 | the times

News

present in the chamber and surround-

ing areas.”

William Barr, the attorney-general,

had a coronavirus test, which was nega-

tive, after coming into contact with Mr

Gohmert, who was well known for his

anti-mask views. He is the tenth

member of Congress known to have

contracted the virus.

Mr Gohmert said he thought he had

caught the “Wuhan virus” because he

had started wearing a mask recently.

A deal to continue extra unemploy-

ment pay for Americans laid off in the

pandemic remained out of reach yes-

terday as the US death toll approached

150,000.

Talks on Capitol Hill reached an

impasse over replacing the $600 a week

supplement, which was due to expire

today, with little sign of a compromise.

The Republicans want to cut the

funding to $200 a week in their latest

$1 trillion package while the Democrats

want to maintain it in their rival $3 tril-

lion bill.

Mask wearing was made mandatory

on the floor of the House of Represent-

atives by Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker,

after Louie Gohmert, 66, a Texas con-

gressman, tested positive the day after

sitting on two committees, mainly

without using a face covering.

Meanwhile several states registered

record daily death rates including Flor-

ida, which reported 216 deaths yester-

day, the first time the number was

above 200. All state-run testing sites in

Florida were closed as a tropical storm

approached. California and North Car-

olina also recorded their highest daily

death rates.

Announcing the mask-wearing de-

cree in the House of Representatives,

Ms Pelosi said: “The chair expects all

members and staff to adhere to this

requirement as a sign of respect for the

health, safety and wellbeing of others

Louie Gohmert

said mask wearing

caused him to

contract Covid-

Concern is mounting over Spain’s fail-

ure to stem a spread of infection that

has brought the daily total to the high-

est level since May, when the country

was in lockdown.

Health ministry figures showed yes-

terday that 1,229 new infections had

been registered in 24 hours, the most

since May 1. The World Health Organi-

sation, which uses a different measure,

put the figure at 905. Salvador Illa, the

health minister, said that there were

more than 400 outbreaks nationwide

and almost 5,000 cases.

Most are in Catalonia and Aragon,

although numbers in Madrid are grow-

ing. The outbreaks tended to be con-

nected to family gatherings, parties and

nightlife and the movement of tempo-

rary workers, Mr Illa said.

Making matters worse, many Span-

iards are about to head to the coast as

temperatures soar above 42C.

The rise has punished the tourism in-

dustry. On Saturday Britain announced

a 14-day quarantine on travellers re-

turning from Spain. Norway has done

the same. France and Germany have

advised against travel to Catalonia.

Mr Illa insisted the situation was dif-

ferent from the crisis in March and

April, when the daily death toll was ap-

proaching 1,000 and hospitals were on

the verge of collapse. More cases were

being detected this time, and most were

Barcelona has banned

nightclubs: the sign says

“bankrupt leisure”

Capitol Hill split over masks and handouts

“There are an awful lot of people who

think it’s the great thing to do all the

time, but I can’t help but think if I hadn’t

been wearing a mask so much in the last

ten days or so, I really wonder if I would

have gotten it,” Mr Gohmert said.

“Moving the mask around, getting it sit-

ting just right, I am bound to have put

some virus on the mask that I sucked in.

That is most likely what happened.”

Democrats pointed out that he occa-

sionally wore a bandana, one of the

least effective forms of mask, and was

seen using it to wipe his nose.

Mask wearing in Congress has re-

mained largely a partisan choice, at

least until Ms Pelosi’s ruling, with many

Republicans choosing not to despite Mr

Trump’s recent tweet stating that

“many people say” it is patriotic when

social distancing is not possible.

Hakeem Jeffries, a Democratic con-

gressman, said: “I’m concerned about

the irresponsible behaviour of many of

the Republicans who have chosen to

consistently flout well-established

public health guidance.”

Based on a seven-day rolling average,

daily cases of the coronavirus in the US

fell from 67,317 on July 22 to 65,266 on

Wednesday, according to data kept by

Johns Hopkins University. That is a

decline of about 3 per cent. According

to the WHO, there were 59,629 new

cases in the US yesterday

President Trump told the White

House coronavirus briefing last night

that “long-term shutdown is not viable”

because the virus was too infectious,

listing several countries which have

seen a resurgence after “leadership was

praised” for early success in shutdowns

that limited infection.

He claimed that cases were now fall-

ing “significantly” in Texas and reduc-

ing in some other ‘sun belt states’ that

had seen recent surges of cases.

David Charter Washington

The coronavirus patient had

difficulty breathing, became

lethargic and grew thinner by the

day. Specialists tried steroids, heart

medications and other

treatments, to no avail.

This week Buddy the

German shepherd,

America’s first pet dog

to test positive for

Covid-19, was

euthanised after

months struggling

with the virus.

On the morning of

his death, Buddy’s

owner, Allison

Mahoney, found him

vomiting clotted

blood in the kitchen,

and rushed him to a vet.

“It looked like it was his insides

coming out. He had it all over. It

was coming from his nose and

mouth,” she told National

Geographic, which reported Buddy’s

death. “We knew there was nothing

that could be done for him from

there. But he had the will to live. He

didn’t want to go.”

Little is known about the spread

of the virus among pets and animal

Vets fail to save infected dog

Charlie Mitchell testing is infrequent and rarely

publicised. The World Organisation

for Animal Health claims there have

been no confirmed cases of pet-to-

owner transmission. However, a

small number of workers on a

Dutch mink farm

might have been

infected by them.

The dog, left, who

was seven and lived in

New York, first

exhibited symptoms in

mid-April. However, it

took a month to get

him a coronavirus test

after visiting a trio of

vets. On June 2 the

owners received a call

from the New York City

health department

saying Buddy’s test was

positive. Duke, their

other dog, a ten-month-old German

shepherd, recorded a negative test.

After months of illness, his

owners decided to have Buddy put

down and cremated. “My pet was

like my son,” Ms Mahoney told the

magazine. “I cleaned him up before

we drove to the vet and stayed with

him in the back seat. I said, ‘I will

have your voice heard, for all our

furry friends, Buddy’.”

t.

d

m

in

w

N

ex

m

to

hi

af

ve

ow

fro

he

sa

po

otherdogat

Spain blames virus surge

on work, travel and parties

asymptomatic, he said. The average age

of those testing positive has dropped

from 60 to around 40.

In the past week ten people have died

and 25 have been admitted to intensive

care. On May 1 there had been 281

deaths in 24 hours, with 732 people ad-

mitted to hospital, of whom 84 needed

intensive care.

The Balearic Islands, including holi-

day hotspots such as Ibiza and Mallor-

ca, had only one new case, while the Ca-

nary Islands had

seven. “We don’t

have to be afraid

of the virus, but

we have to be

careful,” Mr Illa

said.

On Wednesday

the Catalan author-

ities eased the lock-

down in and around

Lleida, the northeastern

city where 160,

people had been or-

dered to stay at home

after a sharp rise in in-

fections. The regional

government, which is-

sued a stay-at-home or-

der to nearly four million

residents in the Barcelona

area, has said that the surge is easing.

Measures have already been intro-

duced to prevent a second wave. Mask-

wearing is compulsory in indoor and

outdoor public spaces in almost the

whole country. Appointments must be

made to visit some beaches, and areas

for sunbeds are demarcated to ensure

social distancing. On some coasts

drones monitor crowding.

Mr Illa said Spain’s regions — which

run their own coronavirus response

strategies — were averaging 42,

PCR tests a day. Some regions are fin-

ing anyone who has tested positive and

breaks quarantine ar-

rangements,

which run

for at least

ten days.

Their con-

tacts may

also be fined.

In Murcia

those penalties

are of up to €60,000.

The region has also intro-

duced fines of €100 for fail-

ing to wear a mask and

€600,000 for organising ille-

gal parties of more than 100

people.

Contact tracers told El Dia-

rio, a news website, the flout-

ing of quarantine restrictions

had worsened in recent

weeks as people returned to

work or went on holiday. The increasing

number of young people affected had

led to more rule-breaking, they said.

Concern is mounting that there are

not enough contact tracers to control

the spread of the virus, particularly as

people move around the country dur-

ing the holiday season.

This month the College of Physio-

therapists in Catalonia offered the ser-

vices of its 12,000 members to help

boost the contact tracing effort in the

region. It was the tracing of cases from

Catalonia that led to the discovery of

the first infection on the tiny Canary Is-

land of La Graciosa.

The Ministry of Defence has said it is

developing a contact tracing strategy to

prevent outbreaks in the armed forces

and would offer those services to civil-

ian authorities if needed.

Almost 127,000 people have been

admitted to hospital in Spain since the

beginning of the pandemic, and the

death toll stands at 28,441, as calculated

by the World Health Organisation.

But many who have contracted the

virus may not have been included in the

health ministry’s figures, particularly at

the start of the crisis. An estimate by El

País put the death toll nearer 45,000,

based on excess mortality and data

from the various regions.

According to the UK’s Office for

National Statistics, Spain has the

second-highest number of excess

deaths. England has the highest.

Isambard Wilkinson Madrid

australia

Victoria has reported its worst daily

coronavirus death toll and its

highest leap in infections as fears

mount that a six-week lockdown of

the capital, Melbourne, is failing.

The state reported 723 new cases

yesterday — a 36 per cent rise on

the case record set on Monday. It

also reported 13 deaths, the largest

number in a single day in Australia.

The Victorian government said that

sick people breaking isolation rules

by going to work were responsible

for the increase. “If you’ve got

symptoms, the only thing you can

do is get tested,” Daniel Andrews,

the premier, said. “You just can’t go

to work. Because all you’ll be doing

is spreading the virus.” Melbourne,

which has 4.9 million residents, has

become the first Australian city to

make mask wearing mandatory in

public. The requirement will be

extended to all of Victoria from

Monday.

belgium

More night curfews are planned if

Belgium’s coronavirus infection rate

continues to rise. Antwerp, the

country’s biggest city, is under a

curfew from 11.30pm until 6am in

an attempt to stop partygoers under

30 from spreading the virus. Last

night La Louvière became the

Record deaths

and cases in

Victoria as

lockdown fails

News Coronavirus

Cala Benirrys beach in

Ibiza, normally

thronged with tourists

enjoying the bright

blue sea, was largely

deserted as the

restrictions on visiting

the Spanish Islands

took effect