COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today, Thursday 1st of October:
- World: 34,048,240 confirmed cases and 1,015,429 confirmed deaths.
- World: Passes 34 million cases, we passed 33 million cases on Monday, so that's 1 million cases in the last 3/4 days.
- Germany: The Max Planck Institute links a "Neanderthal Gene" with a higher risk of severe COVID infection "The probability that humans who inherited this gene variation have to be put on a ventilator when they contract the novel coronavrius Sars-CoV-2 is three times higher"
- Sweden: Sees highest new daily infection rate since June.
- Italy: Sees highest new daily infection rate since April.
- United Arab Emirates: Reports highest daily cases on record.
- Spain: Madrids hospitals issue a warning that their critical care wards are starting to overflow. The infection rate is 735 people for every 100,000 which is far and away the highest per capita in Europe.
- UK: Another Thursday, another raft of countries added to the Quarantine travel list, this time Poland and Turkey. Yes, you guessed it, travelers have until 4am on Saturday to return or face 14 days quarantine.
- Greece: Students protest for more safety measures to reduce COVID transmission in schools. Clashes occur after some protesters hurl petrol bombs, police respond with tear gas.
- Canada: Police uncover long term illegal gambling racket which profited and scaled up vastly in the absence of casinos closed during lockdown. $1m in cash, $1.5m worth of alcohol and 11 guns were seized, with 29 people arrested.
- UK: Head of Portsmouth City council warns government 30% of COVID tests on care home staff were not returned with a prognosis. Concerns are high the testing system is still not up to the task. "A 30% failure rate in sending back test results is just not good enough."
- Switzerland: Government to permit gatherings of up to 1000 people as restrictions eased.