Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
New Zealand Tightens Restrictions; Germany Optimistic About Vaccine
CNN: New Zealand Coronavirus: Country Acclaimed World Leader In Handling Covid-19 Deals With Fresh Outbreak
New Zealand reported 13 new community coronavirus cases on Thursday as the country tackles a fresh outbreak that ended an enviable run of more than 100 days without any locally transmitted infections. The new cluster, which now totals 17 cases, has prompted the country to put its most populous city under lockdown as authorities scramble to trace the source of the outbreak. New Zealand now has 36 active infections, including imported cases. In total, the country has reported 1,238 confirmed cases and 22 deaths. (Hollingsworth, 8/13)
NPR: With New COVID-19 Cases, New Zealand Ramps Up Restrictions To Quash Virus
At noon Wednesday, New Zealand began a three-day period at alert level two, with Auckland at the higher level three. The country had been at level one since June 9 when life had largely returned to normal. Under the tighter level three restrictions, most businesses and schools in Auckland are closed, and bars and restaurants may only offer takeout. Elsewhere in the country, level two measures mean people can still go to work and school but are urged to take safety precautions, including social distancing and the wearing of masks. (Wamsley, 8/12)
In other global news —
Reuters: Germany: Optimistic We'll Have A Vaccine In Coming Months And Certainly Next Year
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Thursday he expected there to be a COVID-19 vaccine in the coming months and definitely next year, speaking after the public health agency withdrew a report suggesting there would be one in autumn. “I’m optimistic that in the next months, and certainly in the next year, there can be a vaccine,” Spahn told ZDF television. (8/13)
AP: German Coronavirus Tests Backlog: 900 Positive Not Yet Told
German authorities worked through the night to clear a backlog of coronavirus tests from travelers after it emerged 900 people who were positive for COVID-19 had yet to be informed. Bavarian Health Minister Melanie Huml said all people with positive results would be informed Thursday and that systems were being improved to prevent any further delays. (8/13)
CNN: Chinese Officials Say Chicken Wings Imported From Brazil Tested Positive For Covid-19
A sample of frozen chicken wings imported from Brazil has tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, authorities said Thursday, the latest in a series of reports of contaminated imported food products. The coronavirus was detected Wednesday on a surface sample taken from a batch of chicken wings during screening of imported frozen food in Longgang district of Shenzhen, the municipal government said in a statement. Officials did not name the brand. (Gan, 8/13)
AP: Experts Warn Spain Is Losing The 2nd Round In Virus Fight
Not two months after battling back the coronavirus, Spain’s hospitals are beginning to see patients struggling to breathe returning to their wards. The deployment of a military emergency brigade to set up a field hospital in Zaragoza this week is a grim reminder that Spain is far from claiming victory over the coronavirus that devastated the European country in March and April. (Wilson, 8/13)
Reuters: Nearly 6% Of People In England May Have Had COVID-19, Researchers Say
Nearly 6% of people in England were likely infected with COVID-19 during the peak of the pandemic, researchers studying the prevalence of infections said on Thursday, millions more people than have tested positive for the disease. A total of 313,798 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Britain, 270,971 of which have been in England, or just 0.5% of the English population. (8/13)
CNN: More Than Half Of Mumbai's Slum Residents Might Have Had Covid-19. Here's Why Herd Immunity Could Still Be A Long Way Off
Last month, researchers in one of India's largest cities made a surprising discovery. Of the nearly 7,000 blood samples taken from people in Mumbai's slums, 57% tested positive for coronavirus antibodies. (Hollingsworth, 8/13)
The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus’s Long, Deadly Plateau In The Developing World
The intensive-care units at the Salvador Zubirán hospital in Mexico City have been operating at full capacity for three straight months—their beds filled with unconscious Covid-19 patients, positioned face down and connected to ventilators. Every person who dies or recovers is replaced within hours by another who is critically ill and in need of life support. “It’s a nonstop flow. We have never seen anything like this before,” said Thierry Hernández, the head of emergency services at the Salvador Zubirán hospital, one of the country’s top public hospitals. (Montes and Agarwal, 8/12)
Politico: Mask Rebels, No Tourists And A Heat Wave: Paris’ Coronavirus Summer
Some Paris residents love spending August in the city for a very Parisian reason: Most of their fellow grumpy Parisians are gone. But the coronavirus is making this August a source of anxiety rather than pleasure. There may be fewer tourists around due to Covid-19, but health authorities have warned that the city is already in the early stages of a "pandemic rebound." (Braun, 8/12)
AP: Virus Exposes Economic, Racial Divide In French Health Care
Festering beneath France’s promise of guaranteed health care for all lie deep disparities across economic and racial lines — differences laid painfully bare by the COVID-19 crisis. Two recent studies have documented these gaps, but government officials haven’t issued new proposals in response. However, as France records a new uptick in virus cases, a health advocacy group called Banlieues Santé — Suburbs Health — is trying to help, offering medical care and guidance in poor and migrant-heavy suburbs and neighborhoods. (Pedram, 8/13)
Reuters: North Korea Nuclear Reactor Site Threatened By Recent Flooding, U.S. Think-Tank Says
Satellite imagery suggests recent flooding in North Korea may have damaged pump houses connected to the country’s main nuclear facility, a U.S.-based think-tank said on Thursday. Analysts at 38 North, a website that monitors North Korea, said commercial satellite imagery from August 6-11 showed how vulnerable the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center’s nuclear reactor cooling systems are to extreme weather events. The Korean peninsula has been hammered by one of the longest rainy spells in recent history, with floods and landslides causing damage and deaths in both North and South Korea. (Smith, 8/12)
Reuters: China, Worried About Food Security, Cracks Down On 'Big Stomach Kings'
China’s biggest short-video platforms said on Thursday they will punish users seen to be wasting food in their broadcasts, cracking down on so-called “big stomach kings” as the government urges against food wastage in the middle of a pandemic. President Xi Jinping called food wastage “shameful” this week as China also seeks to curb a growing trend among internet celebrities who have gained hordes of fans in recent years by eating large amounts of food in a short time on video. (8/13)
And Lebanon confronts the aftermath of last week's explosion —
The Washington Post: Beirut Explosion: Half Of Beirut's Health-Care Centers Are Out Of Commission
The massive explosion that devastated swaths of Lebanon's capital last week has severely damaged its health system, officials warned Wednesday, further straining medical facilities that were already wrestling with rising cases of the novel coronavirus. The World Health Organization said Wednesday that three of Beirut’s hospitals were largely out of service and that more were still flooded with the wounded. Following an assessment of 55 health-care centers in Beirut, the WHO’s regional emergency director Richard Brennan said that “just over 50 percent are nonfunctional,” with a deficit of up to 600 beds. (Loveluck, Morris and Cunningham, 8/12)
The New York Times: Beirut’s Youngest Cancer Patients Lose Care Options After Blast
The children being treated at Beirut’s St. George Hospital built an extended family with each other, painting and dancing together when they had the energy and rubbing each other’s backs when they vomited after chemotherapy sessions. Now, these cancer-stricken children are struggling to keep up with their treatment, and preserve the bonds they developed with each other over sometimes years of treatment, after a powerful blast ripped through Beirut last week and took their hospital — their home away from home — with it. (Abi-Habib, 8/12)
