Coronavirus live news: Indonesia ‘in worst case scenario’ as daily cases climb past 50,000

Incidentally, at the same time, first minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, has been on BBC Breakfast, and he’s been putting clear blue water between the approaches of England and Wales to relaxing the rules. He said unequivocally that face masks would be required. “Here in Wales the rules will be clear” he said.

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As is usual in the UK, a government minister has been up in the early slot on Sky News and they have pretty much said exactly what we can expect them to say in every media appearance this morning. Today it is housing minister Robert Jenrick, and he was pressed on the potential mess of patchwork Covid rules in England from Monday. He said:

We’re in an immeasurably better position thanks to the vaccine. We’re still very much living with the virus and we’re going to be for a long time, so we do need to exercise caution. The vaccine programme has enabled us to move into a different phase, where it’s not going to be a matter of law that these restrictions and inhibitions remain in place, but it will be a matter of personal responsibility. And so we’re asking every member of the public to be cautious, to come to sensible judgments about, for example the wear of masks in close contact in indoor spaces, and for businesses, as well, to consider whether they want to and need to apply those restrictions.

He then went on to say:

You can already see that organisations such as TfL which manages the tube in London, have come to, in my opinion a perfectly sensible judgement that in the close confines of the tube, you should be using a mask, and there’s also some supermarkets out there coming to that conclusion as well.

Asked about Hugh Osmond, founder of the restaurant group Various Eateries saying that Monday in England won’t be the much-touted “Freedom day” but instead “Chaos day”, Jenrick insisted that actually businesses wanted this. He said:

This is the sort of discretion that they want, reflecting the fact that businesses are often in very different situations, and a one-size-fits-all approach, backed by the force of the law, isn’t sensible, when we’re moving into a period now where in all likelihood we’re going to be living with the virus for a long time. We need to take a different approach. That’s what we’re doing, and personally I think that there’s every reason to believe that members of the public, and businesses, will come to sensible conclusions.

Almost 2m more doses of Covid vaccine will arrive in Taiwan today, consisting of direct purchases and a third donation from Japan, the government said, as the island ramps up inoculations, with domestic cases well under control.

Reuters note that Taiwan had initially struggled with supply shortages, like many other parts of the world, to secure enough vaccines, and also blamed China for hindering its efforts, an assertion Beijing has denied.

Cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng said the newly arrivals would be 550,000 doses from AstraZeneca and 350,000 from Moderna, both part of previously announced direct government purchases.

Almost 1m AstraZeneca doses would also be arriving as a donation from Japan, he added, its third such gift in two months.

Good morning, it is Martin Belam here in London. It is housing minister Robert Jenrick on the UK media round for the government this morning. All the focus of the appearances seem to be on a speech from the UK prime minister due later today about economic policy, so I’ll pick out any bits of Covid interest that crop up in due course.

Singapore reported its highest number of local coronavirus cases in 10 months on Wednesday, after the discovery of a cluster among hostesses and customers of KTV karaoke lounges, Reuters reports.

Of the 56 new community infections, 42 were linked to the KTV outbreak, the health ministry said.

The ministry has been investigating infections among what it said were Vietnamese hostesses who frequented KTV lounges or clubs and has offered free testing to anyone potentially exposed.

The first known case was a Vietnamese woman who sought medical help on Sunday, local media reported.

Singapore has yet to reopen KTV lounges and clubs and authorities said the places where the virus spread were operating as food and beverage outlets.

Singapore police said in a statement they had arrested 20 women late on Wednesday, among them South Koreans, Malaysians, Thai and Vietnamese, for alleged vice activities at KTV lounges

Police also planned to step up checks and enforcement on such activities, the statement said.

Indonesia is bracing for its Covid outbreak to get worse after a near vertical climb in cases, a senior minister said on Thursday, warning that infections had spread faster than anticipated due to the more virulent Delta variant, Reuters reports.

The world’s fourth most populous country is struggling to slow virus transmission even after imposing its toughest mobility curbs so far.

Wednesday’s tally of more than 54,000 cases was the latest of many peaks in the past month, and up more than tenfold on the number of infections at the start of June.

In a streamed news conference, senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan said daily Covid cases could still climb as the Delta variant, first identified in India, has a two- to three- week incubation period.

“We’re already in our worst-case scenario,” Luhut said.

“If we’re talking about 60,000 (cases a day) or slightly more than that, we’re okay. We are hoping not for 100,000, but even if we get there, we are preparing for that,” he added.

The government has converted several buildings into isolation facilities, deployed fresh graduate doctors and nurses to treat Covid patients and imported treatment drugs and oxygen, he said.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.

In a streamed news conference, senior Indonesuan minister Luhut Pandjaitan said daily Covid cases could still climb as the Delta variant, first identified in India, has a two- to three- week incubation period.

“We’re already in our worst-case scenario,” Luhut said.

“If we’re talking about 60,000 [cases a day] or slightly more than that, we’re okay. We are hoping not for 100,000, but even if we get there, we are preparing for that,” he added.

More on that shortly. In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:

• Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca will be added to Scotland’s amber travel list, the Scottish Government said.
• The Philippines has announced it will ban travellers coming from Indonesia to prevent the spread of the Delta variant.
• Malta has amended its travel advice to allow in British travellers with any AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of people being turned away if their dose had been manufactured in India.
• In Japan, seven staff tested positive for Covid at a hotel hosting Olympians in south-west Tokyo. A 31-strong Brazilian Olympic delegation, which includes judo athletes, is currently staying at the hotel.
• South Korea on Wednesday tightened social distancing curbs across most of the country to try to combat its worst-ever outbreak of coronavirus after new cases on Tuesday soared past previous daily peaks to 1,615.
• Russia has reported 786 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday, which is again the most confirmed in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic.
• The Netherlands has recorded a 500% rise in Covid cases, following moves to fully reopen the economy including opening nightclubs. It has been seen as a warning as to how case numbers might take off in England when restrictions are dropped next week.
• The UK will not be added to the EU travel green list this week. EU diplomats agreed unanimously to add Ukraine, and remove Thailand and Rwanda.
• Australia extended a lockdown in Sydney by at least 14 days, after three weeks of initial restrictions failed to stamp out the biggest outbreak of COVID-19 this year in the country’s largest city.
• Coronavirus cases in Iran have soared above 23,000 for the first time since late April as the country battles its fifth wave of the pandemic.
• The US donated 500,000 doses the Pfizer Covid vaccine to Costa Rica on Wednesday as part of the Biden administration’s programme of coronavirus diplomacy.