Russia reports most daily cases since start of pandemic US passes 280,000 deaths

7 min readDec 6, 2020

Here’s a little more detail on the news that heightened social distancing rules are being imposed around the South Korean capital Seoul. The health ministry official Park Neung-hoo has said: “We are in a very dangerous situation,” adding that localised clusters have the potential to become a national outbreak.

Concerns have been expressed over the dwindling number of hospital beds. and Park said: “Right now it is exceeding the level that we can control in our hospital system.” New beds are being added and for now there are enough to treat patients, but if the trend continues, the country could face a shortage of beds, he said.

Many of the recent cases have been centred in Seoul, which on Saturday launched unprecedented curfews, shuttering most establishments at 9 p.m. (1200 GMT) for two weeks and cutting back public transportation by 30% in the evenings.

Under the measures announced on Sunday, which go into effect on Tuesday, gatherings of 50 or more people are prohibited, gyms and karaoke bars must close, religious services must be held online or by broadcast, and stricter attendance limits will be placed on school classes, Park said.

While restaurants will still be allowed to provide in-person service, the government is urging people to avoid eating out if possible and not hold non-essential social gatherings, he said.

The curbs will last at least three weeks, until the end of the month, Park said. Other areas of the country will also see heightened restrictions, but at a lower level than the Seoul area.

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England’s tour of South Africa lurched back into crisis mode on Sunday after two unnamed members of Eoin Morgan’s touring party tested positive for Covid-19 following the abandonment of the first one-day international in Paarl.

The match had already been called off 30 minutes before the start of play as a result of two members of staff at the Vineyard hotel testing positive, news which led to the England team and staff being tested again on Saturday evening.

And now a tour that has already seen three South African players emerge has positive cases — and forced Friday’s initial series-opener to be called off — is in danger of being ended altogether following this latest development. A joint statement from Cricket South Africa and the England and Wales Cricket Board read:

CSA and the ECB have agreed to cancel today’s One-Day International match, which was due to take place in Paarl.

The decision was taken after two hotel staff members testing positive for Covid-19. As a precaution, the England players and management underwent an additional round of PCR tests on Saturday evening.

Following the test results, two members of the England touring party have returned unconfirmed positive tests for Covid-19. The players and management are now self-isolating in their rooms until further advice from the medical teams.

The medical advice from both CSA and ECB is that the match cannot not take place.

A decision on the remaining matches in the series will be taken once the results of the tests are ratified independently by medical experts.

Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip may “let it be known” once they have received a vaccine, the Times has reported, citing unnamed royal aides.

The 94-year-old monarch and her 99-year-old spouse are likely to be among the first to be offered a jab, with the government prioritising elderly people as it begins the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine that was approved on 2 December.

The Queen could be among those to offer an influential public endorsement to counter anti-vaccination misinformation circulating online.

The pandemic has killed more than 60,000 people in the UK and has infected more than 1.7 million people. The royal family has not been untouched, with both heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and his eldest son, Prince William, testing positive earlier in the year.

Under the government’s priority list for the vaccine roll-out, the first doses are intended to be given to elderly care home residents and their carers, followed by people over 80 and health service staff.

The Times said that in 1957 the Queen made public that Charles and his sister Princess Anne, then aged eight and six, had been inoculated against polio; helping to ease concerns about potential side-effects of what was then a new vaccine.

Across England, scotch egg makers are ratcheting up production lines after seeing demand from pubs and the food-service sector rise massively over the past week.

Supermarkets have also experienced a substantial spike in sales, with the Co-op reporting a 26% year-on-year increase in the number of scotch eggs purchased at its stores — and an 11% rise in sales over the past week alone.

Sales began to surge on Monday, when food minister George Eustice said that a scotch egg — typically a boiled egg encased in cooked sausage meat and fried breadcrumbs — did count as a “substantial meal”. Then Michael Gove, who had initially contradicted his cabinet colleague and dismissed the scotch egg as “probably” just a starter, backtracked on Tuesday and declared, once and for all, that a scotch egg “definitely” is a substantial meal.

Hospitality businesses in tier 2 areas welcomed the news: under the government’s new Covid-19 restrictions, which are enforced by local authorities, a “substantial meal” must accompany all alcoholic drinks that they serve — meaning many pubs and bars without kitchens would have struggled to reopen after the national lockdown ended in England on Tuesday.

Now, publicans are hoping they need only supply customers yearning for a freshly drawn pint with a cold scotch egg alongside their tipple of choice, to stay on the right side of a quintessentially British law.

Some Southern California sheriff’s departments are pushing back against enforcing new stay-at-home orders that are set to take effect on Sunday night, while others are focusing their messaging, instead, on helping residents stay educated about the transmission of the virus.

Among those speaking out against the order, which will restrict several non-essential businesses and activities for the next three weeks, is Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco who accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom of having a “dictatorial attitude” regarding coronavirus protocols.

“While the Governor’s Office and the state has threatened action against violators, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department will not be blackmailed, bullied or used as muscle against Riverside County residents in the enforcement of the Governor’s orders,” Bianco said.

Instead of enforcing the stay-at-home order, Bianco said he’s depending on county residents to act according to their own judgments to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“The Sheriff’s Department is asking and expecting Riverside County residents to act responsibly and do what they can to protect themselves and their family, from contracting the virus,” he said.

Bianco also accused Newsom of being “extremely hypocritical.”

“It wasn’t that long ago that our same governor loudly and publicly argued how wrong it was for the president of the United States to withhold federal funding from states not complying with federal laws,” Bianco said. “The dictatorial attitude toward California residents while dining in luxury, traveling, keeping his business open and sending his kids to in-person private schools is very telling about his attitude toward California residents, his feelings about the virus, and it is extremely hypocritical.”

Los Angeles County

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said his department will focus on “education and voluntary compliance” of the health order, as they’ve done since March when the pandemic began.

Villanueva said the LASD will be conduct enforcement of rules on “super-spreader events.”

Orange County

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes released a statement saying they will not respond to “calls for service to enforce compliance with face coverings, social gatherings or stay-at-home orders only.”

The full statement can be read here.

Ventura County

Ventura County indicated it would rely on residents’ voluntary compliance of the stay-at-home order.

San Bernardino County

San Bernardino County indicated it would rely on residents’ voluntary compliance of the stay-at-home order.

Russia reports most daily cases since start of pandemic US passes 280,000 deaths

Written by Lijewe

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