Coronavirus live news: hospitals in Brazilian state at breaking point amid oxygen shortage; global deaths near 2m | World news

The French government will impose a daily nationwide curfew at 6 pm starting Saturday to combat a worrying increase in Covid-19 cases, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday.

The measure will remain in force for at least two weeks, Castex told a news conference.

Except for emergency services, all services and shops will have to close at that time, he said.

“The virus is still spreading actively,” Castex said.

AFP: Up to now, most of France has been under an 8 pm curfew, with some parts of the country, especially in the hard-hit east, already under the stricter 6 pm curfew that Castex said had resulted in an infection rate two or three times lower than in the rest of the country.

The nationwide curfew “will allow us to respond gradually and avoid having to taking more difficult measures…. It let’s us reduce social interactions at the end of the day, without limiting essential activities during the day,” Castex said.

He added that while a much-feared infection surge following the year-end holidays had not happened “thanks to your behaviour,” a new lockdown could be imposed “without delay” if the health situation were to deteriorate badly.

The situation in France is “under control compared to neighbouring countries but still fragile,” he warned, with pressure on hospitals still “high but stable.”

Schools will remain open, but indoor sports activities have again been banned for now.

The global coronavirus death toll currently stands at 1,988,290, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.

With daily death tolls at around 16,000 per day in recent days, the world will likely pass the devastating milestone of 2 million dead from coronavirus in just over a year within the next 24 hours.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.

Hospitals in Brazil’s northern state of Amazonas ran short of oxygen and made an urgent call for help from the United States on Thursday.

Amazonas, where nearly 6,000 people have died from Covid-19, is now suffering a devastating second wave that is pushing emergency services to a breaking point.
Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said the situation in Manaus, the state’s capital city, was extremely serious, with its hospital system collapsing and oxygen lacking.

Meanwhile the global coronavirus death toll currently stands at 1,988,290, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. With daily death tolls at around 16,000 per day in recent days, the world will likely pass the devastating milestone of 2 million dead from coronavirus in just over a year within the next 24 hours.

Here are the other key recent global developments:

• US officials warn ‘full resurgence’ of Covid in major population centres. As coronavirus continues to tear across the US without any sign of slowing down, officials have warned there is a “full resurgence” in most major population centres – and that the country could see an additional 92,000 deaths in less than a month.
• Israel reaches two million vaccinated milestone. The number of people who have received a Covid-19 vaccine in Israel has passed the two million threshold, with the prime minister saying there was “light at the end of the tunnel”.
• UK records 1,248 new Covid-19 deaths, down from record level. Britain reported 1,248 new deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test on Thursday, down from a record high of more than 1,500 the previous day.
• Brazil’s largest state declares immediate curfew. The governor of Brazil’s largest state, Amazonas, has declared an immediate curfew amid reports of an explosion in coronavirus-related deaths and claims an entire hospital wing of patients had died after its oxygen supply ran out.
• UK bans travel from Brazil and other South American countries. The UK has taken the “urgent decision” to ban arrivals into the country from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Incoming flights from these countries will stop tomorrow.
• Sweden reports record number of daily coronavirus deaths. Sweden, whose unorthodox pandemic strategy placed it in the global spotlight, reported a record number of Covid-19 deaths for a single day on Thursday, taking the total toll above 10,000, although new infections appear to be easing.