Coronavirus digest: Not enough Germans using alert app

Germany

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's health authority, reported 782 new infections on Sunday, bringing the nation's case count to 232,864. The figure is a notable drop from the more than 2,000 infections reported on Saturday, which RKI said was due to returning travelers. The RKI also reported two new deaths, increasing Germany's death toll from the virus to 9,269 since the pandemic began.

Read more: Study reveals how most Germans get infected

Experts in Germany have claimed that not enough people are using the country's coronavirus tracking app for it to be effective. More than 17 million people have downloaded the app since it was launched in June, but Gert Wagner, a member of Germany's Advisory Council for Consumer Affairs, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the number of downloads "needs to double" for the country to be prepared for a second wave. Veronika Grimm of the German Council of Economic Experts told the newspaper that contact tracing apps are only promising if 80% of the population uses them.

Europe

France reported 4,897 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, marking the highest daily level since the end of a two-month lockdown in May.

The country's health minister has warned of the danger of growing transmission from the young to older, more vulnerable people. The virus is circulating four times more often among people younger than 40 years of age than among those over 65, Health Minister Olivier Veran told the newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

Last week, the government declared Paris and Marseille as high-risk areas due to a surge in infections.

Failure to reopen schools in the United Kingdom "is not an option," British Prime Minister said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph. The British government has pushed to get pupils back into the classroom next week, with Johnson saying in September that reopening schools was a social, economic and moral imperative. He has insisted that schools would be able to operate safely despite the coronavirus pandemic.

The president of Italy's region of Sicily issued a decree ordering the mass expulsion of migrants from the island, arguing that they posed a coronavirus contagion risk. The document banned any migrant from "entering, transiting and stopping over on the Sicilian region's territory (which includes Lampedusa) with vessels big and small, including those belonging to charities." Italy's Interior Ministry officials dismissed the order as invalid, saying that it was the central government that had a say on migration policy. Italy registered 1,210 new cases on Sunday, the highest daily number since May 12, raising fears about a potential second wave.

Ireland's parliament will be recalled from its recess, as public anger grows over the breach of coronavirus restrictions by senior politicians. Last week, government figures and the European Union Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan had attended a golf society dinner with over 80 diners. The scandal comes amid rising infections in Ireland in recent weeks, which was initially less impacted by the pandemic.

Asia

South Korea's capital Seoul has made it obligatory to wear face masks in both indoor and outdoor public places for the first time. In May, Seoul's government ordered that masks be worn on public transport and taxis, but a recent surge in cases has sparked the more serious measure.

Meanwhile, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention registered 266 new infections, a drop from the 397 new cases a day earlier, but a continuation of more than a week of triple-digit daily increases.

Confirmed cases in India topped 3 million on Sunday after reporting 10,339 new cases. The country currently has the highest rate of new infections as the disease has spread through impoverished rural areas in the north and older populations in the south. Health authorities also reported 912 new virus-related deaths, bringing the national death toll to 3,044,940.

Authorities in Pakistan reported only four new COVID-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours, the fewest deaths since March. The new figures offered a glimmer of hope that the country may be able to contain the outbreak. Pakistan saw a sudden spike in infections and deaths in June. 

Americas

The scale of the pandemic in Mexico is "under-represented, under-recognized" and testing is insufficient, according to the World Health Organization's Dr Mike Ryan.

Australia

The Australian state of Victoria has reported its lowest daily rise in cases in seven weeks. The state reported 116 cases and 15 deaths from the coronavirus over a 24-hour period, down from a peak of more than 700 cases early this month.

dv,jcg,jsi/mm (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)