Coronavirus live news: Singapore to use electronic tags to monitor some travellers; global cases pass 18m | The Guardian – on August 3, 2020 at 11:32 am

Melbourne braces for further lockdown measures; ‘major incident’ declared in Manchester; Pelosi says she has no confidence in Birx over pandemic handlingGlobal report: July’s terrible toll revealed as coronavirus cases double every six weeksRestrictions announced on businesses in Metropolitan MelbourneUK coronavirus live: latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage 12.32pm BST Richard Horton, the editor of the Lancet medical journal, has written for the Guardian on how a rising wave of anti-China sentiment, fostered by western governments, is threatening peace and hampering efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic. He writes:The Chinese government does have questions to answer. The first case of Covid-19, as later reported in the Lancet, took place in Wuhan on 1 December. Why did it take a whole month for Chinese authorities to report the outbreak of a dangerous new disease to the international community? For such a highly transmissible virus, those four weeks of silence lost precious time for alerting the world to the risks of coronavirus.But the scale of the anti-China reaction is disproportionate to the reality of the courageous contributions made by Chinese scientists to our global understanding of this pandemic. It was Chinese scientists who first described the human threat of this new disease on 24 January. It was Chinese scientists who first documented person-to-person transmission. It was Chinese scientists who first sequenced the genome of the virus. It was Chinese scientists who called attention to the importance of scaling up access to personal protective equipment, testing and quarantine. It was Chinese scientists who warned of the threat of a pandemic. Related: The threat of Covid should kindle global cooperation, not a new cold war with China | Richard Horton 12.22pm BST Some travellers arriving in Singapore will be required to wear electronic monitoring devices to ensure they are complying with quarantine restrictions, the city state’s government has announced. The devices, which use GPS and Bluetooth signals to track wearers, will be issued to people arriving from a select group of countries who will be allowed to isolate at home rather than at a state-appointed quarantine centre. Continue reading…

Melbourne braces for further lockdown measures; ‘major incident’ declared in Manchester; Pelosi says she has no confidence in Birx over pandemic handling

• Global report: July’s terrible toll revealed as coronavirus cases double every six weeks
• Restrictions announced on businesses in Metropolitan Melbourne
• UK coronavirus live: latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

12.32pm BST

Richard Horton, the editor of the Lancet medical journal, has written for the Guardian on how a rising wave of anti-China sentiment, fostered by western governments, is threatening peace and hampering efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic. He writes:

The Chinese government does have questions to answer. The first case of Covid-19, as later reported in the Lancet, took place in Wuhan on 1 December. Why did it take a whole month for Chinese authorities to report the outbreak of a dangerous new disease to the international community? For such a highly transmissible virus, those four weeks of silence lost precious time for alerting the world to the risks of coronavirus.

But the scale of the anti-China reaction is disproportionate to the reality of the courageous contributions made by Chinese scientists to our global understanding of this pandemic. It was Chinese scientists who first described the human threat of this new disease on 24 January. It was Chinese scientists who first documented person-to-person transmission. It was Chinese scientists who first sequenced the genome of the virus. It was Chinese scientists who called attention to the importance of scaling up access to personal protective equipment, testing and quarantine. It was Chinese scientists who warned of the threat of a pandemic.

Related: The threat of Covid should kindle global cooperation, not a new cold war with China | Richard Horton

12.22pm BST

Some travellers arriving in Singapore will be required to wear electronic monitoring devices to ensure they are complying with quarantine restrictions, the city state’s government has announced.

The devices, which use GPS and Bluetooth signals to track wearers, will be issued to people arriving from a select group of countries who will be allowed to isolate at home rather than at a state-appointed quarantine centre.

Continue reading…