June 5 coronavirus news

Universal Studios Florida, Universal's Islands of Adventure and Universal's Volcano Bay are set to reopen to the public today with limited attendance.

Here are the new guidelines for guests:

The company tweeted out a video outlining its new guidelines for park visitors.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed off on Universal's plans, the company said. The reopening proposal was presented last month at a virtual meeting of the Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force. The task force approved the proposal, as did Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.

The company released their park hours in a tweet this morning:

Mosques across Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta reopened Friday for the first time in three months.

The mass prayer led by Indonesia's President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) at the Baiturrahim Mosque, the Presidential Palace Complex, was the first to be held at the mosque since the implementation of large-scale social distancing in Jakarta due to Covid-19, according to state-run news Antara .  

In line with the country's health protocols to curb the spread of Covid-19, the president wore a mask and had to undergo a body temperature check-up before entering the mosque.

Friday's prayer was performed in accordance with stringent health protocols, including body temperature scanning and implementation of physical distancing among worshipers, according to information from the press, media and the Information Bureau of the Presidential Secretariat.

Among the reopening measures, worshipers are required to carry along their own respective prayer equipment, wear masks, and wash in accordance with the Islamic teachings before visiting the mosque. 

The capacity of the mosque has been temporarily reduced to only 150 worshipers, from its normal capacity of 750 worshipers.

Some context: Indonesia is home to the world's largest Muslim population. But as Covid-19 cases were rapidly increasing, the government declared a national public health emergency on March 31.

A holiday travel ban was imposed on all road, air and sea during Ramadan, Islam's holiest month; and tens of thousands of troops were deployed at checkpoints to enforce the regulations to prevent the disease from further spreading.

The US economy gained 2.5 million American jobs in May. The unemployment rate fell to 13.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report.

Economists expected the unemployment rate to be even worse in May, rising to nearly 20%. But the gradual reopening of the economy actually added new jobs rather than eliminating further positions.

The labor market rebounded from April's drastic losses, when a revised 20.7 million jobs vanished. The unemployment rate last month soared to 14.7% as businesses shut during the coronavirus lockdown.

The fight against the coronavirus will not be over “until there is no virus anywhere in the world,” according to World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris.

Speaking at a press briefing in Geneva, Harris confirmed that there have been “upticks” of the virus in countries which have eased measures, but she said that she was “not talking specifically about Europe”.

The World Health Organization has continually affirmed that countries easing measures should do so gradually and cautiously.

Twenty-six states report that 50% or more of their Covid-19 deaths occurred in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) – such as nursing homes and group homes – according to a report by three doctors at Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine.

Minnesota and Rhode Island top the list, each reporting that 81% of Covid-19 deaths occurred in long-term care facilities, followed by Connecticut with 71% and New Hampshire with 70%.

New York reported the lowest proportion of Covid-19 deaths in long-term care facilities: 21%. The study authors say that is likely a “gross underestimate” caused in part by lack of available coronavirus testing in long-term care facilities, coupled with the fact that Covid-19 deaths were only counted as such if they were backed by a positive test.

Eleven states do not report the number of Covid-19 deaths that occur in long-term care facilities, which the authors say has contributed to an underestimate of the total number of Covid-19 deaths in the United States.

How is this compared to other countries? The study authors write that the numbers are not out of line with what many other countries are reporting. “Most other countries with large numbers of LTCFs are likely also experiencing a greater than 50% rate of their COVID-19 deaths within LTCFs. The World Health Organization estimates that half of COVID-19 deaths in Europe and the Baltics are among their 4.1 million LTCF residents,” they write. “Once France began to include LTCF deaths in its count, the country’s death rate nearly doubled. Canada’s National Institute on Aging indicated on May 6 that 82% of the country’s COVID-19 deaths had been in long term care settings.”

Why are nursing homes and other long-term care facilities so vulnerable? Among the many reasons, the article notes that they have “a high density of people with a combination of the strongest risk factors for COVID-19 associated severe illness and death: old age and multiple morbidities.” The CDC indicates that 39% of the 1.3 million nursing home residents in the U.S. are 85 and older.

This analysis used data from 40 states and Washington, DC, from the Kaiser Family Foundation and from the Massachusetts Department of Health. It was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society on Friday.                                                             

A survey by the UK’s Office for National Statistics has given an insight into how Britons are behaving and feeling as coronavirus lockdown conditions ease.

Nine in 10 people said they had left their homes in seven days before they were surveyed, the ONS found. The survey was conducted between May 28 and 31.

However, only 28% of adults reported they had used face coverings outside their home in that seven-day period.

The government announced Thursday that face coverings would be mandatory on all public transport in England starting June 15. The rule could be enforced by the country's transport police, Transport Minister Grant Shapps said. Exceptions will be made for children, the elderly and those with respiratory problems.

Other findings included:

The United Kingdom has recorded nearly 40,000 Covid-19-related deaths, the second-highest number in the world after the United States.

Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement in Sydney, Australia, plan to go ahead with a rally set for Saturday despite a Supreme Court injunction ruling that it is illegal.

Police in the state of New South Wales (NSW) took the matter to the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney on Friday night in a last-ditch attempt to have the protest banned due to coronavirus safety concerns. 

Supreme Court Justice Desmond Fagan ruled that an NSW Public Health Order banning large gatherings "applies to everyone" and that in this case the right to protest is being "deferred."

Fagan added that social distancing has been crucial to Australia’s suppression of the disease. As of Friday, NSW had not had a local contraction of coronavirus for nine days. Four new positive cases announced on Friday involved people returning from overseas. 

Earlier on Friday, NSW Police Commissioner David Elliot referred to anyone who planned to protest on Friday as "nuts."

Protest organizers, however, said they would continue with the march. "We are not going to stop. We are going to march. We don't care what any acts of law tells us what to do because those acts and laws are killing us," said Letona Dungay, the mother of David Dungay, an Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015.

In a statement on Friday night, NSW Green Party MP David Shoebridge wrote: “First Nations people are organizing this protest and asking for solidarity. Let’s be clear with this late decision people will still attend. We will now work to make any gathering as safe as possible.”

Ten aviation companies are to test safety measures proposed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to prevent the spread of Covid-19, as airports and airlines reopen following the pandemic.

EasyJet, Wizz Air and Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport are among the airlines and airports to have signed up to the health and safety guidelines written by EASA and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

The guidelines suggest observing social distancing wherever possible, wearing a medical face mask from the moment of arriving at an airport until the end of the journey, and frequent hand-washing. Additionally, only passengers with a ticket for travel will be allowed into terminal buildings. 

However, the guidelines do not require airlines to enforce social distancing onboard or to remove the middle seat.

Passengers are encouraged not to travel if they are suffering from any coronavirus-related symptoms such as fever, cough, sudden loss of smell or shortness of breath.

Airlines for Europe, an airline trade association, insisted earlier in May that as the majority of aircraft are fitted with efficient air filters, “the air in the cabin is comparable with the sterile environment of a hospital operating theater.”

The group, which normally flies 720 million passengers a year, argues that removing the middle seat to aid social distancing “is unnecessary and ineffective as a further protective measure” and “not viable for the air transport industry.”

Brussels Airport, which is also participating in the safety trial, is already installing curb-side thermal cameras outside its terminal building to detect passengers with a high temperature or anyone who is not wearing a face mask.

In a statement, Brussels Airport CEO Arnaud Feist said the airport was “preparing actively for an expected increase in passenger traffic as soon as intra-European borders will open up again. Systematic body temperature controls of the passengers will be set up as from 15 June.”

The airport has also reorganized the way travelers queue inside the check-in and security areas and increased the frequency of cleaning. It is using UV sanitising technology to clean trolleys as well as deploying disinfectant-equipped robots to clean the floors.

Beijing will downgrade its public health emergency response level from level two to level three, as it continues to report a low number of Covid-19 infections, the Beijing Municipal Health Commission said in a statement Friday.

These are the new measures:

According to the Chinese government, the country has a four-tier public health emergency management system, with level four being the lowest level.

Some background:

To prevent a surge in cross-border infections, Beijing announced in mid-March the enforcement of a 14-day quarantine on all international travelers arriving in the Chinese capital. They are mandated to self-quarantine, either at home or in a designated facility for two complete weeks.

International business travelers are required to stay at a select number of designated hotels in Beijing, where they are tested for the virus. They are not permitted to leave until the test results have returned.