The Newest: Madrid to impose lockdowns in some areas

MADRID — The Spanish capital will introduce selective lockdowns in city areas the place the coronavirus is spreading sooner.

Deputy regional well being chief Antonio Zapatero mentioned Wednesday that the measures will almost certainly have an effect on southern, working-class neighborhoods of Madrid the place an infection charges have been steadily hovering since August.

Zapatero mentioned that Madrid desires to “flatten the curve earlier than the arrival of autumn and the issues that chilly climate might carry,” including that the measures to be taken might be determined by this weekend.

Madrid and its surrounding area of 6.6 million folks have accounted for almost one third of Spain’s new instances, which have averaged 8,200 per day for the previous week.

Total, Spain has had greater than 600,000 instances and simply over 30,000 deaths.

———

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK

— Trump denies downplaying virus menace, regardless of audio recording, and continues to forged doubt on masks

— India’s virus instances move 5 million and are nonetheless hovering, testing feeble well being care system and shutting in on US whole

— Iowa governor received’t budge on mandating masks at the same time as virus deaths rise

— Doubts persist as NYC’s hybrid college 12 months is about to begin

———

Comply with AP’s pandemic protection at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

———

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

LONDON — The British authorities plans to ration coronavirus testing, giving precedence to well being employees and care house employees after widespread reviews that folks all through the nation have been unable to schedule checks.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday will face questions on his dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic within the Home of Commons and earlier than a key committee amid the outcry over the scarcity of testing.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland says the federal government is within the technique of drawing up a brand new precedence record for testing, suggesting that college students and their households could possibly be subsequent in line after the Nationwide Well being Service and social care.

———

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis says the coronavirus pandemic has proved that our personal well being depends upon the well being of others and the atmosphere, and that exploiting nature means exploiting others.

Francis doubled down on his insistence of the interconnectedness of individuals and the planet throughout his common viewers Wednesday, held in a Vatican courtyard with the trustworthy spaced aside to restrict contagion.

Francis mentioned if individuals are unable to ponder the sweetness and majesty of nature with out exploiting it, they are going to be equally unable to ponder others with out profiting from them. He mentioned: “He who lives to take advantage of nature finally ends up exploiting folks and treating them like slaves. It is a common regulation.”

Francis is anticipated to elaborate on the themes of solidarity, fraternity and look after creation in an encyclical he’s anticipated to signal Oct. three on dwelling within the post-COVID world.

———

HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam will resume worldwide industrial flights connecting the nation to a number of Asian locations beginning Friday, after a monthslong shutdown to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

The flights, nonetheless, are reserved for Vietnamese nationals, diplomats, consultants, managers, expert employees, traders and their households. They aren’t but out there for vacationers.

The flights connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh Metropolis to locations in South Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan will function weekly, the federal government web site introduced. Flights connecting Vietnam’s two largest cities with Cambodia and Laos will resume subsequent week.

To board a flight, passengers should maintain a certificates exhibiting they’ve examined damaging for the coronavirus not more than 5 days earlier than the departure date. Upon arrival, they are going to be examined and quarantined, the report mentioned.

Vietnam shut down worldwide flights on April 1. Nationwide provider Vietnam Airways estimated final month that it might lose $650 million in 2020.

Vietnam has reported 1,059 instances of the coronavirus. It managed to keep away from any deaths till July, when the virus crept into town of Da Nang, killing 35 folks.

However no new instances have been reported for 2 weeks. Final week, Da Nang lifted a journey restriction after two months.

PRAGUE — The Czech Republic has registered one other steep rise in coronavirus infections, with the variety of new confirmed instances surpassing 1,600 in in the future for the primary time.

The Well being Ministry says the day-to-day enhance reached a brand new document of 1,677 on Tuesday. The document was damaged 4 instances final week.

The capital of Prague has the best quantity of people that examined constructive, over 141 per 100,000. The surge has prompted some European nations, together with Slovakia, Denmark, Britain and Switzerland to impose journey restrictions for travellers from the Czech Republic.

In line with authorities figures launched on Wednesday, 333 folks wanted hospitalization. That quantity was over 400 through the first wave of the pandemic within the spring.

The Czech Republic has had 38,896 folks contaminated with 476 deaths.

———

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s each day coronavirus tally has stayed under 200 for 2 weeks, however the authorities is urging folks to not decrease their guard.

Authorities mentioned Wednesday that the 113 instances added within the final 24 hours took the nation’s whole to 22,504, together with 367 deaths.

Eighty-one of them have been within the Seoul metropolitan space, the center of a latest viral resurgence.

Vice Well being Minister Kim Gang-lip known as on folks to chorus from having pointless gatherings and visiting crowded locations.

———

UNITED NATIONS — The brand new president of the U.N. Normal Meeting is warning that unilateralism will solely strengthen the COVID-19 pandemic and is asking for a brand new dedication to world cooperation together with on the honest and equitable distribution of vaccines.

Turkish diplomat and politician Volkan Bozkir, who took over the reins of the 193-member world physique on Tuesday, introduced that the Normal Meeting will maintain a high-level particular session on the COVID-19 pandemic in early November, although diplomats mentioned the date could slip.

Bozkir takes over from outgoing Normal Meeting President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, who presided over a novel year-old session that he mentioned was “outlined by a pandemic” and included digital conferences and new voting procedures.

Bozkir advised diplomats from U.N. member nations, seated at socially distanced areas within the meeting chamber, that “confronting the consequences of the coronavirus in all their dimensions might be an overarching precedence for my presidency.”

He mentioned “no state can fight this pandemic alone,” and it’s the members’ duty “to strengthen folks’s religion in multilateral cooperation and worldwide establishments, with the U.N. at their heart.”