‘We Are At The Breaking Point,’ UN Chief Warns As Pandemic Exposes Global Fault Lines

AP: UN Chief: World 'At The Breaking Point' Due To Inequalities
Saying “we are at the breaking point,” the U.N. secretary-general made a sweeping call Saturday to end the global inequalities that sparked this year’s massive anti-racism protests and have been further exposed by the coronavirus pandemic. “COVID-19 has been likened to an X-ray, revealing fractures in the fragile skeleton of the societies we have built,” Antonio Guterres said as he delivered the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture. (Anna, 7/18)

AP: Insults, Slammed Fists: EU Virus Summit Goes Into 4th Day
Weary and bleary, European Union leaders were gearing up Monday for a fourth day of fighting over an unprecedented 1.85 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) EU budget and coronavirus recovery fund, barely recovered from a weekend of walkouts, fists slamming into tables and insults. With a brilliant sun warming the negotiating sundeck at the Europa summit center early Monday, there finally was a glimmer of hope that the talks to help the continent emerge from the pandemic through an unprecdented economic aid package are not doomed after all. (Casert and Corder, 7/20)

AP: Remote Region Of Brazil's Amazon Counts 1st Deaths By Virus
The first deaths from COVID-19 have come to a vast, remote region of the Amazon that Brazil’s government says is home to greatest concentration of isolated Indigenous groups in the world. An 83-year-old Marubo man known as Yovêmpa died of COVID-19 on July 5, the country’s Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health said five days later. Two other deaths were reported later by the independent Indigenous Peoples’ Coordination. (Savarese, 7/17)

AP: Asia Today: Outbreak In Northwest China Spreads To 2nd City
China’s latest coronavirus outbreak has spread to a second city in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. One of the 17 new cases reported on Monday was in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, the regional government said on its official microblog. The remainder were in the regional capital of Urumqi, where all other cases have been reported since the outbreak that has now infected at least 47 people emerged earlier this month. (7/20)

Reuters: Leaky Border: Tourists And Quarantine Cheats Threaten Canada Amid U.S. COVID-19 Surge 
For 67 days, tiny Prince Edward Island went without a single new case of COVID-19. That changed earlier this month when Canada’s smallest province, best known as the home of fiction’s Anne of Green Gables, announced a cluster of new cases linked to a foreign student who entered Canada from the United States. The man, who did not immediately self-isolate upon arrival in Canada as required by law, infected at least one person, who then infected at least four more. “With tens of thousands of people crossing the border every day, there’s no way to enforce that” they follow the rules, said Colin Furness, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto. “It’s a little bit scary.” (Gordon and Vikander, 7/19)

AP: In Bolivian City, People Buy Fake - And Toxic - Virus Cure
Long lines form every morning in one of the Bolivian cities hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic as desperate people wait to buy small bottles of chlorine dioxide, a toxic bleaching agent that has been falsely touted as a cure for COVID-19 and myriad other diseases. The rush in the city of Cochabamba to buy a disinfectant known to cause harm to those who ingest it comes even after the Bolivian Health Ministry warned of its dangers and said at least five people were poisoned after taking chlorine dioxide in La Paz, the capital. (Cartagena and Flores, 7/17)

AP: Mexican President Pledges Better Health Care After Pandemic
Mexico’s president promised Sunday to combat chronic health problems and improve health care, as the country’s cases of COVID-19 continued to mount. The Health Department reported 5,311 more confirmed cases, for a total of 344,224, and 296 more COVID-19 deaths, for a total of 39,184. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Sunday in a message to the families of coronavirus victims that he would fight chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension that make people more likely to suffer severe cases of COVID-19. (7/20)

The Washington Post: Pakistan Coronavirus: Officials Fear Eid Al-Adha Celebrations Could Lead To Spike In Cases 
Two months ago, even with the novel coronavirus lurking, Pakistanis were eager to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan, after a long month of prayer and fasting. The virus had barely affected the country, so officials decided to lift some health restrictions, allowing people to shop and socialize freely. Within weeks, the price of this relaxation had become starkly clear: Cases of the coronavirus soared in the impoverished Muslim-majority nation of 230 million, and hospitals were overwhelmed. By June, infections reached 6,000 per day, and some days saw nearly 150 deaths. Overall, more than 260,000 Pakistanis have become infected, over 200,000 have recovered, and more than 5,500 have died. (Hussain and Constable, 7/19)

The New York Times: Nicaragua’s Ruling Sandinistas Fall Victim To Covid-19, Highlighting The Disease’s Spread 
A string of recent deaths across Nicaragua — including mayors, judges, police officials, sports figures, university rectors and government bureaucrats — is pointing to the chilling reality that the coronavirus is devastating this Central American country, although the government is not publicly acknowledging it. To critics of the government, the deaths are a result of President Daniel Ortega’s haphazard and politicized response to the pandemic with no encouragement of wearing masks or social distancing measures, and little testing and no stay-at-home orders or shutdowns. Instead, the government has encouraged large gatherings. (Robles, 7/18)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Venezuela: Maduro Blames Migrants For Outbreaks In Maracaibo; Zulia, Tachira, Apure 
The "biological" threat was gathering on the western border, Venezuela's socialist government claimed. So, besieged President Nicolás Maduro, ever vigilant against potential invasion, dispatched gun-toting reinforcements to the frontier. The 57-year-old authoritarian wasn’t worried about the Colombian army. Rather, he was targeting his own people — Venezuelan migrants abroad, left jobless by the coronavirus pandemic, now returning home. (Herrero, Faiola and Zuniga, 7/19)

Politico: Britain Won’t Need Another Coronavirus Lockdown, Boris Johnson Says 
The U.K. won’t be in a position to need another national lockdown, according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson likened a nationwide shutdown to a “nuclear deterrent,” telling the Sunday Telegraph that he doesn't want to use it. “And nor do I think we will be in that position again,” he added. (Furlong, 7/19)

Reuters: Going To The Beach In Paris? Why Not Test For COVID-19?
Parisians heading to the opening of Paris Plages, the yearly transformation of sections of the Seine river into man-made beaches, were met with a new attraction on Saturday: COVID-19 test centres. A series of indicators across the country, including in the French capital, have suggested the virus could once again be gaining momentum. Authorities are pushing an aggressive testing policy to avoid a return to the peaks seen from March to May. (Olive and Irish, 7/19)

Politico: Italian Tax Spat Reveals Big Tobacco’s Clout 
A surprise move by the Italian government is protecting heated tobacco's privileged tax status. But it's also drawing fire in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which brought into sharp relief the extra health risks that smokers face. At issue is a proposal that would have hiked taxes on heated tobacco — over which Philip Morris International (PMI) has a near monopoly — so that it would be close to par with conventional cigarettes. In Italy, taxes on heated tobacco are only a quarter of the standard rate on conventional cigarettes. Health NGOs and lawmakers across parties supported the measure, which would have channeled the revenue into home nursing care. (Roberts and Martuscelli, 7/19)

And some good news —

Reuters: Cubans Celebrate No Local Transmission Of COVID-19 For First Time In Four Months 
Cuba for the first time in 130 days on Sunday said there were no new domestic cases of COVID-19 as most of the country moved into the final phase of resuming normal activities with masks and social distancing. Francisco Duran, head of epidemiology at the Ministry of Public Health, and who has updated the country daily on the pandemic, took off his mask during the national broadcast for only the second time deliver the good news. (7/19)

AP: The Latest: S. Korea Has Smallest Rise In Cases In 2 Months
South Korea has reported its smallest daily jump in local COVID-19 transmissions in two months as health authorities express cautious optimism that the outbreak is being brought under control. South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday still reported 26 newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including 22 that were tied to international arrivals. (7/20)