Category: Corona Virus

Samples from a study suggesting the coronavirus was circulating outside China by October 2019 have been re-tested at the World Health Organization's (WTO) request, two scientists who led the Italian research said.

There is growing international pressure to learn more about the origins of the pandemic that has killed more than 3 million people worldwide and U.S. President Joe Biden last week ordered his aides to find answers.

The WHO said on Friday experts were preparing a proposal on the next studies to be carried out into the origins of the virus, but that there was no set timeline. [nL2N2ND20N] read more

The UN body reacted to Biden's announcement that intelligence agencies were pursuing rival theories, including the possibility of a laboratory accident in China, by saying the search was being "poisoned by politics". read more

COVID-19 was first identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, while Italy's first patient was detected on Feb. 21 last year in a small town near Milan.

However, a study published last year suggested antibodies to either the virus or a variant were detected in Italy in 2019.

That prompted Chinese state media to suggest the virus might not have originated in China, although the Italian researchers stressed the findings raised questions about when the virus first emerged rather than where.

"The WHO asked us if we could share the biological material and if we could re-run the tests in an independent laboratory. We accepted," Giovanni Apolone, scientific director of one of the lead institutions, the Milan Cancer Institute (INT), said.

The WHO's request has not previously been reported.

"WHO is in contact with the researchers that had published the original paper. A collaboration with partner laboratories has been set up for further testing," a WHO spokesman said.

The spokesman said the WHO was aware that the researchers are planning to publish a follow-up report "in the near future".

He said the UN agency has contacted all researchers who have published or provided information on samples collected in 2019 that were reported to have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, but does not yet have the final interpretation of the results.

The Italian researchers' findings, published by the INT's scientific magazine Tumori Journal, showed neutralising antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in blood taken from healthy volunteers in Italy in October 2019 during a lung cancer screening trial.

Most of the volunteers were from Lombardy, the northern region around Milan, which was the first and hardest hit by the virus in Italy.

"None of the studies published so far have ever questioned the geographical origin," Apolone told Reuters.

"The growing doubt is that the virus, probably less powerful compared to later months, was circulating in China long before the reported cases," Apolone added.

DUTCH TEST

The WHO chose the laboratory of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam for the re-test, Emanuele Montomoli, co-author of the original study and professor of Public Health at the Molecular Medicine Department in the University of Siena, said.

The Erasmus University did not reply to requests for comment.

Italian researchers sent the team in Rotterdam 30 biological samples from October-December 2019 that they had found positive, 30 samples from the same period they had tested negative and 30 samples from as far back as 2018, negative.

"We sent them blind, that means our colleagues did not know which samples were positive and which negative," Apolone said.

"They rechecked our samples with commercial tests, which are much less sensitive than the ones we devised and validated," Montomoli said.

Despite the differences in the two detection methods, both Italian scientists said they were satisfied with the results, delivered to them in late February, adding that they could not comment further until the team of Italian and Dutch scientists have published their findings.

"We did not say in our study that we could establish without a doubt that the coronavirus, later sequenced in Wuhan, was already circulating in Italy in October," Montomoli said.

"We only found the response to the virus, namely the antibodies. So we can say that this coronavirus or a very similar one, perhaps a less transmissible variant, was circulating here in October," he added.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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WHO asks for re-checks of research on when coronavirus first surfaced in Italy - Reuters

Washington, D.C., has little love for mystery. Politicians prefer the news to supply certainty: two antagonists, clear moral stakes, the chance to take a side. But for more than a year the starting point of the dominant political story, the coronavirus pandemic, has been mysterious. Among conservatives, predisposed to hawkishness toward China, where the virus had come from, attention focussed on the possibility that the COVID-19 pathogen had emerged from a Chinese lab, either by accident or design. Liberals sought a more explicit alignment with scientific investigators, and favored an account in which the virus had migrated naturally from animals to humans, possibly through the Chinese markets where exotic animals are sold for human consumption. The rights theory, at best, blamed science run amok, and at worst, suspected an unprecedented act of biowarfare. (It was the incompetence of China, and nothing else, that did this mass Worldwide killing, President Trump tweeted in May, 2020.) The lefts theory blamed an unreconstructed pre-modern approach to wildlife that, instead of protecting it, killed and ate it. For a year, each camp occupied the seats that they liked best: liberals in the mainstream, conservatives on the fringe. This spring, though the evidence for either side has not changed much, there has been news in this area. Scientists and political commentators have become less swift to dismiss the lab-leak theory. And so, the political debate over the pandemics origins became a case study in something else: how the political world does and doesnt change its mind.

Political actors have restaged the same argument so frequently during the past few years that it can sometimes seem as if they are only ever having a single fight. The argument is invariably about some scientific or intellectual consensus, and it follows a general pattern. First, conservative media or political figures notice what seems to them a glitch in the consensusa situation in which liberals might be using the slogans of science and objectivity as a cover for a partisan political endeavor. Then liberals react, and often overreact, by insisting that the scientific or intellectual consensus is, in fact, ironclad, and introduce prominent members of the relevant field to say so in public. (This is the circling the wagons phase.) Often, there is a third stage, in which certain center-left dissenters become exasperated by the overstatements of the liberals, and point out more technical issues with the consensus, frequently based in previously arcane sub-specialty disputes. These left dissenters then sometimes make jarring, slightly comic appearances on, for instance (or, specifically), Tucker Carlson Tonight.

These stagesglitch, circle the wagons, Tucker Carlson Tonighthave appeared in the debates over masking, the 1619 Project, the Russiagate scandal, and many of the outrages over cancel culture. The pattern recurs frequently enough that the current political era, often identified with Trump, or with the more atmospheric phenomenon of populism, might actually be defined by this argument about consensus. It offers a reassuring familiarity: every issue rings the same bell, and then everyone staggers bleary-eyed to their usual stations, like firemen at midnight.

In the case of the origins of COVID-19, the glitch was identified early, even before the pandemic had taken hold. On February 16, 2020, the Republican senator Tom Cotton appeared on Fox News to discuss the possibility that the virus had originated in a lab in Wuhan, China. Now, we dont have evidence that this disease originated there, but because of Chinas duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says, Cotton, of Arkansas, said. Wagons were circled quickly; the Washington Post denounced this as a conspiracy theory, and the Times described it as a fringe theory. In May, 2020, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told National Geographic that everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species.

The pressure on the consensus theory was always timethe longer scientists went without identifying an animal origin, the more attention would be paid to alternatives. In January, the novelist Nicholson Baker published a cover story in New York magazine arguing a richly textured version of the lab-leak theory, which emphasized the gain of function research being pursued in the Wuhan Institute of Virology and elsewhere, in which scientists were manipulating coronaviruses to discover what would make them more virulent or infectious, and suggested that these inquiries could be a culprit. (Here was the left-dissent phase). When Bakers piece was published, Carlson devoted a segment of his program to it, declaring gleefully, For 2020 you were called a science denier unless you agreed vehemently, on faith, that the coronavirus came from a bat, or something called a pangolin, that was sold in a wet market in Wuhan. New York magazine, Carlson pointed out, was hardly a conservative magazine, and yet Baker had done like, a years worth of research talking to many scientists before coming down in favor of a lab leak. Carlson said, Turns out scientists around the world agree with him. They just didnt want to say so.

The pattern reached a slightly absurd dnouement a few weeks ago, when Senator Rand Paul staged a bitter standoff with Fauci in a Senate committee hearing. Paul insisted that the National Institutes of Health had funded gain of function research in the lab of a prominent virologist named Ralph Baric, at the University of North Carolina.

Youre fooling with Mother Nature, Paul declared.

We have not funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Fauci, who represented the scientific establishment as perfectly as Paul represented anti-authority libertarianism, said. Here were two men who plainly loathed one another, engaged in a debate that any casual observer would need a glossary to decode.

Everyonethe conservatives, the liberals, and the dissenters alikehad an interest in describing the scientific community as moving with the coherence and self-certainty of a closed fist. It flattered liberal audiences to think that they were objective and on the side of reason, gave conservatives an antagonistic authority to rail against, and reflected the dissenters interest in being seen as the tellers of hard truths. But it also had the effect of mischaracterizing how certain scientists were. The pundit Matt Yglesias wrote recently that, when Bakers article first appeared, he had tweeted disparaging things about it only to be told quietly by a number of research scientists that I was wrong and plenty of people in the science community thought this was plausible.

The pattern began to break at the end of March, when the World Health Organization released a long-awaited report into the origins of the pandemic, for which members of an investigative team had travelled to Wuhan, and conducted interviews with staffers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The topline findings suggested that the consensus had been right all along: the investigative team concluded that it was likely to very likely that the origin of SARS-CoV-2 was a zoonotic transfer, and extremely unlikely that a lab leak had caused the pandemic. Its a brand-new lab, Peter Daszak, a prominent disease ecologist and W.H.O. team member, told the Los Angeles Times. Its not somewhere where a virus would likely get out of. The staff are trained really well before they get into the lab. Theyre psych-evaluated, theyre tested regularly. The labs audited. Its just not a place thats sloppily run.

But the details were less convincing. Though the team had identified a pattern of COVID-like illness that had appeared in December, 2019, among people associated with the Wuhan animal markets, they could not find any animal that had carried a direct progenitor of the virus. The crucial step, between bats and human beings, was still missing. More concerning to critics, the treatment of the possibility of a lab leak seemed at best perfunctory: it covered just four of more than three hundred pages in the report, and the team had secured incomplete documentation and evidence from the Chinese labs they visited. All of which led the W.H.O.s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to tell the agencys member states that the expert team had not sufficiently interrogated the lab-leak theory. I do not believe this investigation is extensive enough, he said, suggesting that further W.H.O. investigations would follow.

To be clear, no major new evidence had been found. But after Tedross statement, what had looked like an establishment consensus came quickly to seem like something else: duelling hypotheses, each with missing evidence. One prominent ex-Times science reporter, Nicholas Wade, published a lengthy analysis in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists concluding that a lab leak was more likely, and a second ex-Times science reporter, Donald G. McNeil, Jr., responded to Wades analysis with his own, saying that though he had long been skeptical of the lab-leak theory, he now found it worthy of further study. On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a U.S. intelligence report showed that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had become sick with COVID-like symptoms in the late fall of 2019. The world of political ideas reacted barometrically: My priors: Lab leak 60% Natural origin 40%, the elections analyst Nate Silver wrote on Twitter. For people who had stuck vigorously to one side, there was some irony in seeing how quickly these establishment types could swivel. But everyone was swivelling. Earlier this month, when Fauci was asked whether he was still sure that COVID-19 developed naturally, he said, No, actually.

The argument over the existence of a liberal consensusthat everyone important agreescan often obscure substantive stakes: the lab-leak controversy contains the possibility of a major inflection point in the contest between the U.S. and China. It had one foot in the old political regime, Donald Trumps, which lent it a conspiratorial, madcap fury. But it also has one foot in Joe Bidens world, one in which it remains an open question whether a suddenly fragile liberal power will confront its authoritarian rival. On Wednesday, Biden announced that he had asked the intelligence community to formally assess whether COVID-19 emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident. More than three million people have died from COVID-19. What will the U.S. do if it becomes clear that someone in China had been culpable and that there had been a coverup?

Earlier this month, a joint letter appeared in the journal Science, written by eighteen scientists, most of them with prestigious academic appointments, and including some of the major figures in virology and related fields. The letter was succinct, and its authors did not commit themselves to any theory of the case. But they did suggest that the W.H.O. team had too quickly dismissed the lab-leak theory, writing, theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover both remain viable. They simply wanted the case reopened.

The letter has mostly been taken as further evidence of the collapsing consensus. When I spoke with two of the scientists who had signed it, they agreed that there were two possible explanations for SARS-CoV2: either it came from a zoonotic spillover or a lab. The lab-leak theory had gained enthusiasm largely because the zoonotic-spillover hypothesis lacked crucial evidence. But both of them also recognized that there wasnt direct evidence for a lab leak, either. David Relman, a prominent microbiologist at Stanford who had helped organize the letter in Science, told me, Its all circumstantial.

I had placed a video call to Relman, on Sunday afternoon, because I had hoped he might help me characterize the evidence for each theory. He said he saw several points in favor of zoonotic spillover. The first was that this was usually how new viruses emerged in people, and the literature suggested that animal crossovers are happening far more than we know. At the margins of human civilization, where villages pressed up against the bush, scientists kept finding antibodies from deadly diseases that had never spread: henipaviruses, SARS, Ebola, village outbreaks that are like flashes in a pan, Relman said. On top of that, by bringing more humans into contact with wild animals, Chinas vigorous wildlife trade had expanded the opportunities for such spillovers to occur. If that sounded a bit abstract, his second point in favor of zoonotic spillover was more concrete. By last summer, scientists had identified the closest known relatives of SARS-CoV-2 in horseshoe bats. The nearest known relatives of SARS-CoV-2 are all found in bats, and theyre found in bats in China, Relman said. So you have to think at some point this virus or its immediate ancestors were found in batsseems like a reasonable conclusion. The only question was: What was the path from bat to human?

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The Sudden Rise of the Coronavirus Lab-Leak Theory - The New Yorker

The final step out of lockdown in England is set for 21 June, when the government will remove all legal limits on social contact although some social distancing and mask-wearing rules will remain.

However, a senior government minister has said that it is too early to speculate about whether this will go ahead as planned, amid concern about increasing cases of the Delta variant, first detected in India and known as B.1.617.2.

The Guardian spoke to a number of experts about whether the planned 21 June lockdown lifting should be delayed and if so, why.

John Bell, regius chair of medicine at the University of Oxford, said that he had looked at the numbers on Tuesday and that he was not concerned with hospitalisations, which are pretty flat, or mortality, which is very flat.

He puts this down to the rapid rate of vaccinations, saying that the most important thing is that among those who would get sick and die from the virus, around 80-90% of people are now vaccinated.

He said that vaccines would, undoubtedly, prevent hospitalisations and deaths. He says trying to get rid of the virus entirely from the UK is foolish and will never happen.

If, on the other hand, you are trying to manage the disease and are aware of the fact there will be other variants and a certain amount of disease activity in the background but low hospitalisation and deaths, then that is another question. You need different strategies for the two approaches, he said.

I think we have to watch the figures and at the moment I dont see anything that makes me anxious, there are more cases but not that many.

Susan Michie, professor of health psychology and director of the centre for behaviour change at UCL, said that she wished there had been more focus on data and not dates.

But the emphasis has been on dates rather than data, and it would have been good if this was not the case, she said.

She added that what was happening now was similar to the spread of the Alpha variant, first detected in Kent and known as B.1.1.7, in terms of increasing transmission, adding that we should be concerned.

We all suffered the consequences of not acting soon enough with another lockdown, she said. No one wants that to happen again so the starting point in communication should be focusing on preventing another wave. The key thing is to learn from the past and the mistakes we made and one thing we learned about the virus is that you cannot wait until you are certain of another wave. You have to act when there is the possibility of it or you lose control over the virus rising exponentially.

Michie added that an increasing number of epidemiologists and public health experts, who had knowledge about the pandemic, were saying it would be extremely unwise to lift more restrictions.

President-elect of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, Fiona Donald, said that her views on the easing of restrictions came from the viewpoint of the millions of patients on waiting lists for operations. She worries that if restrictions are lifted too soon, hospitals will struggle once more and there is already a huge backlog of people waiting for non-Covid related surgery.

If hospitals get busy or even overwhelmed by Covid cases then they are unlikely to get surgery in a timely fashion and that is my main concern really, she said.

Donald added that we should be guided by what the science shows and there is a timeframe for that, but whatever decision should be made on the basis that the NHS can cope.

She said it was not just about hospitals filling up but also when there were lots of infected patients in hospital you use up disproportionate amounts of space and personnel and resources.

Kate Nicholls, whose organisation represents pubs, restaurants, bars and clubs across the country, said the government delaying its roadmap for easing Covid restrictions in England would be hugely damaging for the industry.

Its critical we move ahead to step four of the roadmap. Weve still got a quarter of premises that cant open at all. Those that can open are trading under such severe restrictions theyre not profitable. Leaving restrictions in place is not viable. Every day restrictions are in place businesses are losing money and jobs are in jeopardy.

Any delay would require the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to bring forward a package of fresh economic support measures to prevent a fresh wave of job losses, she said. More than 3m jobs were furloughed at the start of May, according to the latest official figures, with almost half of staff in the hospitality sector receiving emergency wage support.

The support is critical. For those businesses that cant open yet its been 16 months without revenue at all. Particularly nightclubs, music venues, wedding venues and the events business that support them, those businesses are clinging on by their fingertips, Nicholls said.

She said any reintroduction of tougher controls would be devastating for hospitality firms. It would be a catastrophic, retrograde step. Businesses would close their doors for good almost immediately.

We see no reason why there should be a delay. There is nothing coming out in the epidemiological research or case numbers to suggest the roadmap is not on track.

Jagjit Chadha said there would be costs from delaying, but that the economic fallout would be much less than during previous lockdowns.

The good news is that it looks like the economy has shown more resilience in the face of every successive lockdown. Weve kind of learned how to deal with them, he said. Britains economy shrank by about a quarter during the first lockdown from March 2020. However, GDP fell by about 10% in the second lockdown last autumn and by less than 5% at the start of this year during the third, he said. The direct economic cost of lockdown seems to be less.

Chadha said there was a strong case for delaying reopening because the economy had adapted over the past year, and that containing the virus was key for the countrys long-term economic recovery.

So its got to depend on the growth of the infections and the virus. We should not stop ourselves from doing these things because of the impact on the economy. Its a secondary question, he said.

Research by the International Monetary Fund shows the economic impact from lockdown is about equal to the effects from people voluntarily social distancing when worried about higher rates of infection. This could strengthen the argument for keeping some restrictions in place, he said.

People are so aware now of the infection and where its hitting. If we didnt control it, you would see a reduction in expenditure in any case, as people wont go out. Getting the virus under control is also the only way you can get back to normality on the economy.

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Should lockdown lifting go ahead as concerns swirl over Covid variants? - The Guardian

Coronavirus tracker: Orange County reported 50 new cases and no new deaths as of June 1  OCRegister

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Coronavirus tracker: Orange County reported 50 new cases and no new deaths as of June 1 - OCRegister

Allies of Donald Trump took the unusual step of speaking out on Sunday in support of Joe Biden, regarding efforts to pinpoint the source of Covid-19 and find out if China knows more about the origins of the pandemic than it is letting on.

Biden said on Thursday he was expanding an investigation into the outbreak, following a departure from previous thinking by at least one US intelligence agency now leaning towards the theory that the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan.

Michael McCaul, a Republican congressman from Texas, and Matthew Pottinger, Trumps former deputy national security adviser who persuaded him to start using the controversial term Wuhan virus, both welcomed the development.

Its absolutely essential to find out what the origin of this thing is, its essential for us to head off the next pandemic, its essential for us to better understand the variants of the current pandemic that are emerging, Pottinger told NBCs Meet the Press.

Both of these hypotheses that President Biden spoke of are valid, it could have emerged from a laboratory, it could have emerged from nature. Neither is supported by concrete evidence but theres a growing amount of circumstantial evidence supporting the idea that this may have leaked from a laboratory.

The Wuhan lab theory was dismissed by many scientists and the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Trumps advisers was that the weight of evidence supported natural origins. The World Health Organization said in February it was extremely unlikely Covid-19 began in a laboratory.

But the theory has gained traction.

On Thursday, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence said: The US intelligence community does not know exactly where, when or how the Covid-19 virus was transmitted initially but has coalesced around two likely scenarios: either it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals or it was a laboratory accident.

While two elements of the IC lean toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter each with low or moderate confidence the majority of elements within the IC do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other.

The IC continues to examine all available evidence, consider different perspectives, and aggressively collect and analyze new information to identify the viruss origins.

On Sunday, a WHO-affiliated health expert speaking to the BBC said the lab theory was not off the table and called on the US to share any intelligence.

Pottinger said he believed researchers in China had more to say.

If this thing came out of a lab, there are people in China who probably know that, he said. China has incredible and ethical scientists, many of whom in the early stages of the pandemic suspected that this was a lab leak. [A researcher at] the Wuhan Institute of Virology said her first thought was, Was this a leak from my lab?

These people have been systematically silenced by their government. Now that the world knows how important this is, that might also provide moral courage to many of these ethical scientists for whom I think this is weighing on their consciences. I think that were going to see more information come out as a result of this inquiry.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that three members of staff at a laboratory in Wuhan became sick with Covid-like symptoms before the first Covid patient was recorded in December 2019.

McCaul, a former chair of the House homeland security committee, told CNNs State of the Union he believed Bidens 90-day intelligence review would likely be inconclusive because Chinese authorities have destroyed everything in the lab. But he said he welcomed the new investigation.

It more likely than not emerged out of the lab, most likely accidentally, said McCaul, who has long argued that China and the WHO are culpable.

Excerpt from:

Trump allies herald Biden investigation of Covid origins in China - The Guardian

A man rides a bicycle on an empty street amid lockdown restrictions due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in Hanoi on May 10. On Saturday, Vietnam's health ministry announced the discovery of a new coronavirus variant in the country. Nhac Nguyen/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A man rides a bicycle on an empty street amid lockdown restrictions due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in Hanoi on May 10. On Saturday, Vietnam's health ministry announced the discovery of a new coronavirus variant in the country.

Vietnam has detected a new coronavirus variant that is highly transmissible and has features of two other strains.

"Vietnam has uncovered a new COVID-19 variant combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the U.K.," Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said, according to Reuters. "That the new one is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the U.K. variant is very dangerous."

The announcement came on Saturday as the country is dealing with a recent spike of infections that started in May.

Long says the new variant might be responsible for the latest surge, according to the AP.

The new variant is more transmissible in the air and Long says scientists observed the variant's ability to replicate quickly in lab cultures, according to VnExpress.

Seven other coronavirus variants had been detected in the country prior to Saturday's announcement. The latest variant does not have a name yet, but the ministry of health plans to publish genome data of it.

Since the pandemic began, Vietnam has reported 6,713 cases and 47 deaths as of Saturday. A little more than half of the cases and 12 of the deaths were reported in the last month, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

A majority of the latest cases reported came from the Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces, both of which have a large industrial presence. Hundreds of thousands of people work there to manufacture goods for big tech companies including Samsung, Canon and Apple.

Early on in the pandemic, Vietnam was praised for low case numbers and deaths. The country's aggressive social distancing policies and experience with prior epidemics were seen as effective measures in stopping the spread.

But since cases as increasing again, restrictions have been put in place again. All religious events are banned nationwide, and authorities in major cities have closed public parks and nonessential businesses to help stop large gatherings, according to the AP.

Nearly 29,000 people or .03% of the country has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

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Vietnam Detects New Highly Transmissible Coronavirus Variant - NPR

The remaining matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which was suspended earlier this month, will be completed in the United Arab Emirates in September and October, according to the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI).

The BCCI said in a statement that they had asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) for more time to make a call on whether India would be able to host the Twenty20 World Cup in October and November.

The popular IPL Twenty20 tournament was suspended with 31 matches left to play on May 4 after several players and backroom staff tested positive for the new coronavirus amid a devastating second wave of COVID-19 in India.

The UAE, the back-up venue for the T20 World Cup that hosted the entire IPL in 2020 because of the pandemic, was preferred "considering the monsoon season in India", the BCCI said.

India reported its lowest daily rise in new COVID-19 cases for a month on Friday but the tally remained high at 186,364 infections and 3,660 deaths.

BCCI head Sourav Ganguly said this month that COVID-19 restrictions meant it was impossible to stage the remaining games, about half the season, in India.

Organisers are likely to be looking to squeeze the matches into a window between England's The Hundred tournament, finishing in late August;India's Test tour of England, which finishes in mid-September;and the Twenty20 World Cup, which is scheduled to start in mid-October.

About 40 Australian cricketers, support staff and broadcasters are just about to finish hotel quarantine in Sydneyafter getting a chartered flight out of the country two weeks ago as COVID-19took hold.

Instagram: Pat Cummins

Australia'smale limited-overs stars are set to play five T20s and three ODIs on a tour of the West Indies in July, but do not have any other international commitments until a one-off Test against Afghanistan in Hobart on November 27.

But some, including captain Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell, have signed on to play in The Hundred, which ends on August 22.

England cricket chief Ashley Giles said English players would not be available to see out the IPL if it clashedwith the international calendar and it is unlikely other countries would risk their players so close to the World Cup.

That would take some of the gloss off the competition, which usually attracts the best players in the world, but the BCCI may try to finish it off and fulfil their broadcast and sponsorship contracts without star imports.

BCCI treasurer Arun Singh Dhumal said in early May that the board was facing losses of about $350 millionin revenue because of the suspension of the tournament.

Reuters/ABC

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Indian Premier League returning after coronavirus shutdown, with remaining games to be played in UAE - ABC News

Sand beach in Porto Santo Island, Madeira Islands, Portugal.

Airlines are opening new routes and resuming old ones every week, increasingly expanding flights to and from Europe. Hotels are offering discounts. And countries such as Malta are even offering to pay visitors as the continent reopens its borders to foreign visitors and prepares for a more normal summer by early July.

In other words, all seems to indicate that the time has come at last for travelers to be able to plan a summer beach vacation in Europe, post-coronavirus.

Although the US has not opened to international leisure visitors from most of Europe, the European Unionsignaledlast week that it will ease restrictions for vaccinated travelers from outside the bloc, including Great Britain and the United States.

The E.U. shut its borders last year in a bid to stopCovid-19from spreading, but many member states that are heavily reliant on tourism are desperate for foreign travelers to return, reports NBC, noting that searches for E.U. airfares from the U.S. went up by 47%, according to the airfare analytics firm Hopper.

Here are 13 beautiful beaches selected as the safest in Europe by European Best Destinations, based on criteria such as lower number of Covid-19 cases during the pandemic and at the time of this article, on vaccination rates and on charters and health measures taken by the authorities in each destination.

These places have also been selected on the basis of the large offer ofprivate villas, tourist apartments, small- or medium-sized hotelswith specific health charter and commitments to travelers safety such as cleaning and room disinfection service after each stay and respect for social distancing, EBD writes.

The destinations selected impose no mandatory quarantine upon arrival (as long as the visitor has proof of a negative test), offer bars and restaurants that are open late or without curfews, provide supervised beaches and recognize thevaccination passport, with no additional test required.

The document to prove who is vaccinated on paper or digital formats is starting to be issued by the countries to help ease restrictions and open borders to international travel.

In Europe, theDigital Green Pass that the European Union is aiming to start issuing by June 21 is expected to be used by all the member countries.

For your safety and that of the most vulnerable people, we invite you to schedule your vaccination before you go on holiday, EBD recommends. If you do not want to do numerous tests, pleasechoose destinations that recognize the vaccination certificate such asMalta,GreeceandMadeira.

Malta, for example, which has the best vaccination rate in Europe, will roll out the red carpet for visitors this summer, offering up to 200 ($244) per stay per person.

Madeir- is offering free tests if needed.

At the top of the list is a beach located in a sustainable destination (EDEN destination awarded by the European Commission), so you have a combination of safety/sun/sustainability.

The coastal strip of Ghadira Bay in Mellieha, Malta.

Malta's largest sandy beach, Ghadira Bay in Mellieha, and its 12 beautiful covesis ready for visitors. As the largest beach of the 13 pocket beaches aroundMelliea, it has space enough for sunbathers to keep safe distances.

Nature, gastronomy and culture combine naturally in Mellieha, a destination that has been awarded theEDENlabel by theEuropean Commissionfor its commitment to sustainable tourism.

Malta has experienced up to four times fewer severe cases of Covid-19 than the most affected European countries. As of May 28, 2021, Malta had the highest COVID-19 vaccination rate in Europe,having administered 107.46 doses per 100 people in the country. Tourism professionals have been vaccinated as a priority to ensure the welcoming of visitors under the best sanitary conditions.

Maltas Tourism Minister has announced that travelers booking directly on the website of3- 4- and 5-star hotels in Malta and Gozo Island (not via Booking or Airbnb) will receive financial assistance of up to 200 per person with a required stay of at least three nights.

From June, restaurants and bars will be open until midnight. Masks on the beaches are recommended but not compulsory.

A vaccination certificate or negative coronavirus test (conducted at least 72 hours before departure) are required for a stay, without quarantine.

Panoramic view of "Porto Santo" island beach in Madeira Islands, with "Ilheu da Cal" islet as ... [+] background.

The Madeiraislands are among thesafest destinationsthis summer and count among the least-affected areas of Portugal, (and of Europe) along with the Azores, the Alentejo and the Algarve.

Wearing a mask is compulsoryonbusy streets but not if you are playing a sport or sunbathing on the beach.

Madeira is an archipelago made up of several islands.Porto Santo, with 5,500 inhabitants, is one of them and famous for its nine kilometers of golden silky sandy beaches.

For that reason, the island is also calledIlha Dourada (Golden Island).The year-round temperate climate and sea temperatures ranging between 17C and 22C, makes it attractive, through all seasons.

The sand of Porto Santo is considered to have therapeutic features and are used for "psammotherapy" (hot sands).

Ir-Ramla bay at Gozo through Tal-Mixta Cave, Malta

Gozo is one of the 21 islands in the Mediterranean Sea that make up the Maltese archipelago. Its a stunning destination known for its Neolithic gantija Temple ruins, rural hiking paths, great beaches and scuba-diving sites.

As an incentive for travelers to visit, the Maltese authorities are offering up to 200 per person (minimum stay of three nights and direct booking on the website of a 3-, 4-, or 5-star hotel).

Gozo is considered Malta's sister island but greener, more rural and smaller, with a spectacular coastline and some of thebest dive sitesin Europe.

Negative covid test or a vaccination certificate will permit visitors to stay without quarantine.

Praia Nova Beach in Algarve, Portugal

Almost untouched bycovid-19,theAlgarveregion in Portugal is one of thesafest destinations in Europewith eight times fewer severe cases per million inhabitants than many other severely-hit countries.

Surrounded by high cliffs and lush vegetation to the east of Senhora da Rocha Beach, Praia Nova is considered one of the best-kept secrets of the Algarve region. Clean air, beautiful walks along the coast and unspoiled nature grace this less-touristic area of the Lagoa region.

Along with its unsurpassed beaches, Lagoa also boasts picturesque villages such as Carvoeiro, Ferragudo and Porches.

Porches and the Algarve in general put measures in place very early to protect the local population and to reduce the spread of Covid-19 to become one of thesafest destinations.

Negative covid test or vaccination certificate will permit visitors to stay without quarantine.

A viewing point over the turquoise, fluorescent blue sea of Egremni Beach on Greece's Lefkada ... [+] Island.

With its turquoise waters, classified among the bluest water in the world, fine white sand and cliffs that flow into the sea, Egremni is one of themost beautiful beaches in Greece.

Located on the island of Lefkada in the Ionian Sea, also one of themost beautiful islands in Greece, Egremni beach with its sheer cliffs has often been described as inaccessible.

Lefkada, connected to the mainland by a floating swing bridge, is surrounded by 24 islets - Aristotle Onassiss Skorpios among them. Other noteworthy sights on the island are churches, monasteries, picturesque villages and secluded beaches surrounded by lush vegetation.

Fancy a walk in the great outdoors? Park your car at Egremni beach and walk to Porto Katsiki, EBD recommends. Porto Katiski means "Goat port" in Greek. Because only goats could reach the area before. The beach is at the bottom of a concave cliff. Now it is accessible to people, too.

Greece very quickly positioned itself in favor of thevaccination passport and was one of the first to recognize it. Vaccination certificate or negative covid test taken 72 hours before arrival allow visitors to stay without quarantine.

Golden Beach Riviera Beach Ghajn Tuffieha in Malta.

Beneath the amazing, 17th-century, clifftop Ghajn Tuffieha Tower, where you can admire sublime sunsets, this unspoiled beach is known to cliff-walkers and bird watchers alike a safe and natural refuge during a sunny holiday inMalta.

With four times fewer severe cases of Covid-19 than the most-affected European countries, Malta has remained one of thesafest destinations in Europethroughout the pandemic. With thehighest vaccination rate in Europeand inducements to welcome travelers (up to 200 reimbursed per person, per stay if you book in a hotel for at least three days), Malta is positioned as a must-see destination of the year.

Located a few minutes from the famous "Golden Bay Beach," Riviera Beach is a surprising red-sand beach nestled in the heart of a natural bay and famous with Instagram users and nature lovers.

Malta reopened restaurants and snack bars until midnight starting May 24. Wearing a mask on the beach is not compulsory.

A vaccination certificate or negative covid-19 test will allow visitors to stay without quarantine.

Las Teresitas beach, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife Island, Spain.

Open to vaccinated travelers from around the worldstarting June 7,Spainis one of the top travel destinations for this summer.

Nestled in the hollow of the hills, with the village of San Andr in the background, its golden sands (imported from the Sahara) and its palm trees, Las Teresitas is one of the most beautiful beaches on the Canary Islands.

The Spanish Canary Islands are an archipelago of rugged, volcanic islands known for their black- and white-sand beaches. Tenerife, dominated by Mt. Teide, a dormant volcano that is Spain's tallest peak, is the largest island. Its best known for its Carnaval de Santa Cruz, a huge pre-Lent festival with parades, music, dancing and colorful costumes.

Las Teresitas, located near the capital, Santa Cruz, is popular with locals and far from the crowded tourist beaches of the Costa Adeje, where the main resorts are located. Tenerife is a destination that has found a balance in its tourist development, explains EBD. The vast majority of the island is preserved from mass tourism.

For a holiday away from the crowds, EBD advises the north coast of the island (Puerto de la Cruz,La Matanza de Acentejo andTacoronte, for example). For wild beaches far from mass tourism, discoverAlmaciga, a village of incredible beauty with a black-sand beach of volcanic origin.

Praia Grande beach and Fort of So Joo do Arade, built to protect the Arade river mouth in ... [+] Ferragudo, Lagoa, Algarve, Portugal.

The municipality of Lagoa in Portugal has some of the best beaches of the region and brings together picturesque places including Carvoiero, Porches, Ferragudo, the Benagil cellars and the trail of the seven hanging valleys (awarded as themost beautiful hiking trail in Europe).

With manyhotels and resortson a human scale, but also manyvillas with swimming poolsand a wide range oftourist apartments, Lagoa is the opposite of huge, anonymous seaside resorts. Rich in cultural, religious and gastronomic heritage Lagoa is also the capital of pottery.

Ferragudo, a former fishing village in the municipality popular with travelers looking for beautiful beaches, restaurants and local shops, is considered one of the most charming places in theAlgarve.

Praia Grande, as the name suggests, is Ferragudo's largest beach. Accessible both to people with reduced mobility and families with strollers, it has a play area for children, a snack bar, umbrellas and deckchairs that can be rented for a half day or for the whole day and at more affordable prices than other coasts in Europe.

The municipality ofLagoahas set up many standards to fightCovid: It was among the first cities in Europe to provide free masks to its inhabitants starting in the springof 2020, and also set up tailor-made support for tourism professionals to welcome travelers in high-level sanitary conditions.

Well sheltered, Praia Grande has few waves and currents, making it reassuring for families with young children as the water is not deep over a large area.

Ribeira Grande town on north coast of Sao Miguel island, Azores.

Renowned for its "Lagoa do Fogo" (hot spring) and chosen as one of the seven wonders ofPortugal, Ribeira Grande is a town located on the north of the island of Sao Miguel, the biggest island in the Portuguese Azores archipelago.

Sao Miguel is known for its volcanic scenery, flora and rich marine life, including whales. Ponta Delgada, the capital, is home to the 18th-century City Gates, Gothic St. Sebastian Church and 16th-century Fort of So Brs.

One of the largest beaches on the island Ribeira Grande, which bears the name of "Praio do Areal de Santa Barbonara" is popular for surfing and also suitable for a swim or a lazy day of sun bathing.

Particularlywell preserved from Covid-19throughout the pandemic, the Azores experienced25 fewerCovid-related deaths per million inhabitants than the most affected European countries and 15 times fewer severe cases than mainlandPortugal.

With its wide open spaces surrounded by nature, outdoors sports such as kayaking, horse riding, sailing, paragliding, trekking, paddle boarding and surfing, Ribeira Grande is a great destination to recharge your batteries this summer, EBD advises.

Praia do Areal de Santa Barbara is a supervised beach.

Vaccination certificate or negative Covid-19 test will allow visitors to stay without quarantine.

Preveza in Greece. and its Monolithi beach.

Known as a seaside gem famous for being no-pretentious, Preveza is one of those places in northwestern Greece, at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, where you can literally just switch off and unwind.

With a mix of fascinating history and cosmopolitan cafes, Preveza is a favorite getaway for those who love the beaches with crystalline water and a languid way of life.

Monolithi Beach is the main beach in Preveza and at 22 kilometers long and 80 meters wide, the longest. In fact, it one of the longest beaches in Europe.

Greeceis among Europes least affected bycoronavirusand has taken extra safety and health measures to ensure a safe holiday for travelers. For example, air conditioner filters are changed after each stay and a distance of four meters is compulsory between each beach umbrella.

Known for its excellent value for money, Preveza is the anti-St Tropez, writes EBD. With affordable hotel, restaurants and cafs, this summer the town will also have deckchairs for free and cleaned between occupants. Greece has also cut taxes on flights, trains, buses and other services.

Cyprus Golden Beach.

With one of the lowest rates of severe cases of Covid-19 in Europe, the island nation of Cyprus, the third largest and third most populous island in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, is one of the safest summer destinations in Europe this year.

Golden Beach is an unspoiled, yellow sandy beach on a peninsula backed by dunes and facing the Mediterranean.

With its turquoise waters and mythical places such as the "Aphrodite Bath," Cape Greko, or the "Bridge of lovers," and other legendary beaches including Nissi Beach, Cyprus is known as Europe's sunniest island.

Cyprus will have vaccinated more than 60% of its population by the end of June, one of the best rates in Europe.

Restaurants and bars are open now, most restrictions have been lifted, the curfew is at midnight and nightclubs will open from June 10 (upon presentation of a safepass, a document proving that you have recovered from Covid-19 in the past six months, a vaccination certificate or a negative test performed 72 hours maximum prior to arrival.

Beach at Puerto de Tazacorte, La Palma.

Less touristy than Gran Canaria or the Costa Adeje on the island of Tenerife, the island ofLa Palmaappeals to lovers of wild nature, surfing, hiking, biking and to enthusiasts of astronomy thanks to one of the clearest skies in Europe.

For that reason, one of the most powerful astronomical observatories in the world is located on this island.

La Palma is the northernmost of the Canary Islands and has been declared as a World Biosphere Reserve and Starlight Reserve.

Rugged, beautiful, surprising and spectacular are among the adjectives to explain its nickname as La Isla Bonita" (the Pretty Island).

The island's capital, Santa Cruz de la Palma, is a port town with narrow cobbled streets and houses with wooden balconies. The Caldera de Taburiente National Park has a huge crater-shaped formation and is covered in pine forest and cut by waterfalls.

Clean air and clear skies await you on this island that is up to10 times less affected by Covid-19than other regions of Europe.

Puerto de Tazacorte and Santa Cruz are charming, colorful towns that remind us of Havana, EBD explains. Waves of people from La Palma left for Havana in the past and some came back with a lifestyle, tastes and products of Cuban origin. It is therefore not surprising to count a dozen artisanal cigar factories in pure Cuban style in La Palma.

The black sand volcanic beaches of La Palma have an unsuspected quality: They accumulate heat and warmth from the crystal-clear water that comes and goes during the tides.

The volcanic sand beaches of Puerto Naos, Charco Verde, Puerto de Tazacorte, Nogales, await you for a safe and relaxing holiday, EBD says. During your stay, be sure to visit the pink salt shakers of La Palma as well as the Pirate Cave Poris de Candelaria.

Restaurants and bars are open until midnight and wearing a mask is not compulsory on the beaches and during sporting activities.

Negative Covid-19 test or vaccination certificate allow you to stay in La Palma without quarantine.

Halikounas Beach and Lake Korission, Corfu island, Ionian Sea, Greece.

Blessed by the gods,Corfuis one of the greenestGreek islands of the Ionian group and Halikounas Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches on the island.

Defined by rugged mountains, the island offers exceptional flora and fauna, lush green hills, a resort-studded shoreline, interesting museums and many other idyllic beaches. Corfu Town is flanked by two imposing Venetian fortresses, features winding medieval lanes and the grand Palace of St. Michael and St. George.

Halikounas Beach is three kilometers long, perfect for respecting social distances.

Greeceis one of the pioneer countries recognizing thevaccine passport.

Read more here:

Summer 2021 In Europe? 13 Beautiful European Beaches Considered The Safest Post-Coronavirus - Forbes

Rise in UK coronavirus cases stoke concerns over 3rd wave  The Associated Press

Link:

Rise in UK coronavirus cases stoke concerns over 3rd wave - The Associated Press

By Adam Vaughan

OUR WORLD IN DATA

1. Lockdowns across Europe

I think it all seems a bit fuzzy to us now, but around March 2020, we were in such uncharted territory. Countries were trying to figure out what they should do. The UK waited too long, despite most of mainland Europe already being in lockdown. I think this is a useful snapshot that shows the UKs delay. Taking action earlier would likely have saved a lot of lives in the first wave.

2. UK winter wave

Each country has had its own pattern and timing of waves. Some had worse ones in [their] autumn. I think the clearest winter wave was in the UK, especially with the emergence of the UK variant, which created a lot of concern for other countries. For several weeks, we were recording more than 1000 deaths per day.

3. Vaccine campaigns start

This is possibly the most important metric we will track for years.

4. Indias outbreak

Indias curve really starts ramping up in early March, but it was given very little attention until it was too late. The confirmed cases and death counts are likely to be very large underestimates of the actual scale of the outbreak.

5. South Americas persistent battle

Many countries have had quite distinct waves of covid, with large outbreaks then several months of low infection rates. However, several countries across South America have had almost a year of relatively high levels of infection and deaths. They havent really been able to get it under control. Much of the attention is on India now, but South America, in many ways, has been worst hit. We also think excess deaths there are much higher than confirmed deaths.

More on these topics:

Original post:

5 charts that tell the story of how the coronavirus pandemic unfolded - New Scientist