Coronavirus latest: Fresh lockdown for German district after meat-packing outbreak

The Gütersloh area, home to around 100,000, will re-enter lockdown after an outbreak at a meat-processing plant. The R-rate in Germany stands at 2.76. Follow DW for the latest.

• Germany has placed a district under a fresh lockdown following an outbreak at a meat-processing plant
• New car sales in Europe will fall a record 25% owing to the pandemic
• China clears the latest potential vaccine to start clinical trials
• Over 9.05 million confirmed cases globally, with the death toll surpassing 470,000

All updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC/GMT)

09:00 The German district of Gütersloh will be subject to a renewed lockdown until the end of June following an outbreak at a meat-processing plant, North Rhine-Westphalia’s state premier has announced. The strict measures are in an effort to contain a fresh outbreak that originated in a Tönnies meat processing facility.

“The new regulations are comparable to what we saw [across the country] in March,” state premier Armin Laschet said, saying that the roughly 100,000 inhabitants of the Gütersloh district can be tested for free for coronavirus.

In international terms, Germany’s lockdown was comparatively mild. People were urged to stay home as much as possible but were free to go outside as much as they wished. Meetings of more than two people from different households in public were prohibited, and private home visits were not permitted.

08:40 Germany’s reproduction rate remained high at 2.76, the country’s disease control agency the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has said. Despite the high figure, the RKI stressed that in the last seven days the overall number of cases in the country had continued to decline and the high R number was largely due to isolated outbreaks.

The average age of the dead was 81 and the death rate among those confirmed to be infected in Germany stands at around 4%. Over 12 million people have now downloaded Germany’s coronavirus track and trace app, one week after its launch.

An RKI spokeswoman outlined preventative measures put in place to limit their spread of the recent outbreaks, for example building complexes placed under quarantine. Although the pandemic in Germany was heading in the right direction, she said that the virus was still widespread in the country.

“The pandemic is not over, not worldwide and certainly not in Germany,” RKI President Lothar Wieler said.

08:00 New car sales in Europe this year will fall a record 25% due to the pandemic, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has announced. Manufacturers are facing a “major economic crisis” across the continent.

Sales are expected to tumble from 12.8 million units in 2019 to 9.6 million this year, the ACEA said.

“The ACEA maintains hope that this dramatic scenario can be mitigated through fast and strong measures by the EU and national governments,” group head Eric-Mark Huitema said in the statement. He called for “the necessary political and economic support.”

05:25 China has approved the start of testing for a possible vaccine candidate developed by Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products, the company has confirmed. The potential vaccine received a certificate from the National Medical Products Administration to launch clinical trials.

In China there are at least six vaccines undergoing human trials; there are many more around the world. French drugmaker Sanofi SA has also announced early Tuesday it expected to get approval for the distribution of a potential vaccine by the first half of next year, faster than it had originally anticipated.

05:20 Australia has closed two primary schools in Melbourne after a fresh cluster of outbreaks were recorded in the area. State premier Daniel Andrews said there would be “significant community transmission” among the state’s 17 new cases.

Students at both schools are undergoing testing and extensive cleaning will take place in the school buildings before they are reopened. The suburb where the schools are located was identified by the government as one of six “hotspots” in the city.

Overall in Australia, there have been 102 deaths and more than 7,400 people have been infected. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said he plans for the border to remain closed for a “very significant” amount of time, crediting Australia’s relatively low infection rate to the country being “an island sanctuary.”

03:46 Germany has reported 503 new infections, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 190,862. With 10 deaths also reported, the death toll has risen to 8,895, according to data released by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases on Tuesday.

03:30 The operator of the Tokyo Disney Resort has announced that parks will open to the public on July 1 — but the number of visitors will be limited as a precautionary measure.

Oriental Land said the visits will have to be booked in advance. Other measures, like temperature checks, spaced seating, and the wearing of masks, will also be enforced.

Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea were closed to visitors towards the end of February as Tokyo and neighboring prefectures saw a rise in COVID-19 cases.

03:24 China reported 22 new infections on Tuesday. While nine were imported cases, 13 infections were reported in Beijing, which remains under lockdown over a resurgence of the virus.

The outbreak in Beijing was linked to the Xinfadi wholesale market, the largest agricultural market in the city, amidst rising fears over a fresh wave.

New cases had fallen into single digits on Monday and authorities had expected them to stay that way. However, a spike was registered on Tuesday.

01:16 UNESCO has found that over a quarter-billion children had no access to schooling in 2018 — and warned that the figures are likely to be exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. 

The UN body, in a report released on Tuesday, said, “258 million children and youth were entirely excluded from education, with poverty as the main obstacle to access.”

“Lessons from the past — such as with Ebola — have shown that health crises can leave many behind, in particular the poorest girls, many of whom may never return to school,” UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay wrote in a foreword.

01:02 The US passed the grim milestone of 120,000 coronavirus-related deaths on Monday when it tallied another 425 fatalities in 24 hours.

The US leads the world in coronavirus infections and deaths, with 2,310,798 cases confirmed and 120,393 deaths.

00:35 Mexico has reported 4,577 new confirmed cases, taking the total to 185,122 infections, the health ministry said on Monday. With 759 additional deaths reported, the death toll has risen to 22,584 deaths.

However, the government has said that the true number of infections may be significantly higher.

00:20 US President Donald Trump is to expand a ban on US work visas and extended it until the end of 2020, a senior White House official said Monday.

The visa categories that will be affected by the new order include H-1B visas for skilled workers, L-1 visas for workers being transferred within a company, most J visas for academics and researchers, the H-2B visas for seasonal workers.

Read more: Trump to extend US work visa ban until end of 2020

00:12 Brazil has crossed the 1 million threshold for coronavirus cases, a day after large crowds gathered at Rio de Janeiro beaches over the weekend. Many were seen without masks, as they ignored the World Health Organization’s guidelines to maintain 1 meter of distance between people.

Brazil reported over 20,000 new confirmed cases of the virus on Monday, bringing the country’s coronavirus tally to 1,106,470, according to the health ministry. The total number of deaths has risen to 51,271, from 50,617 a day earlier.

However, the WHO has warned that even more cases may be going uncounted.

A record increase in cases worldwide was attributed to the huge spike seen by Brazil, the US and India a day earlier. Brazil had recorded 54,771 new infections, followed by 36,617 in the US and over 15,400 cases in India.

00:00 Catch up on yesterday’s coronavirus news here.

In reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, unless otherwise specified, DW uses figures provided by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Coronavirus Resource Center in the United States. JHU updates figures in real-time, collating data from world health organizations, state and national governments, and other public official sources, all of whom have their own systems for compiling information.

Germany’s national statistics are compiled by its public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). These figures depend on data transmission from state and local levels and are updated around once a day, which can lead to deviation from JHU.

DW / Balkantimes.press