Global cases doubled in last six weeks; deaths pass 650,000; Amazon’s treatment of workers investigated. Follow the latest updates WHO says Covid-19 is ‘easily the most severe’ crisis it has facedDemocrats pan Republican plan to slash jobless benefits to $200 as ‘totally inadequate’Pet cat diagnosed with Covid-19 in first UK case of animal infectionSee all our coronavirus coverage 2.55am BST Charlotte graham-McLay reports for the Guardian: New Zealand’s health minister has spoken to reporters about the mysterious case of a traveler who arrived in South Korea from New Zealand and was then diagnosed with Covid-19. This case has captured attention because New Zealand officials believe the country is free of community transmission — all known cases of the virus are contained in government-managed quarantine in designated isolation hotels. But this traveler, a South Korean citizen, arrived in New Zealand on 18 March from the United States, before the quarantine provisions were imposed. He stayed with friends in Auckland instead.The man flew from Auckland to Christchurch and left the country to return home to South Korea on 20 July, where he was diagnosed with the coronavirus on arrival. Hipkins said officials were exploring a number of explanations for how the man came to catch the virus – including the fact that he spent 14.5 hours in a transit lounge in Singapore during his trip. But Hipkins and the country’s top health official, Ashley Bloomfield, were pre-empting the “worst case scenario” of the man having caught the virus through unrecorded community transmission in New Zealand – and were contact tracing and testing the man’s New Zealand contacts. Because the man is a South Korean citizen, New Zealand officials have not been able to speak to him yet for privacy reasons. But Hipkins said the government had requested he be tested again for Covid-19 as soon as possible.He added that the man had been diagnosed initially using a less reliable, rapid test.“The risk to public health is considered to be low,” Hipkins said. But infection in New Zealand “can’t be ruled out.” 2.47am BST The state of New South Wales has recorded 14 new cases, meanwhile, including six new cases linked to the funeral cluster and four linked to the cluster at the Thai Rock restaurant at Wetherill Park.The new cases also include a case associated with the Thai Rock restaurant at Potts Point in inner Sydney, and the previously reported case in a staff member of the Apollo restaurant in Potts Point. Continue reading…
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