UK curb flouters face fines of up to $13,000
LONDON: From September 28, those who violate Covid-19 restrictions in the UK will face fines of up to £10,000 (nearly $13,000), as health secretary Matt Hancock said the country is at a “tipping point” with cases rising exponentially.
The government isn’t ruling out new national measures, but for now will stick with more localised efforts to tamp the outbreak, he said. The country reported a further 4,422 new cases on Saturday, the biggest daily increase since early May.
New curbs are due to be imposed in London, while several towns and areas in north England and the Midlands have been placed in local lockdowns.
Hancock told TV channels on Sunday: “This country faces a tipping point. We face a choice. If everybody follows the rules ...then we can avoid further national lockdowns”.
“But we of course have to be prepared to take action if that is what is necessary. I don’t rule it out; I don’t want to see it. The first line of defence is people’s behaviour.”
The fines for those breaching self-isolation rules will start at £1,000 (nearly $1,300) - bringing this in line with the penalty for breaking quarantine after international travel - but could increase to up to £10,000 for repeat offences and for the most egregious breaches, including for those preventing others from self-isolating. This could include companies who threaten selfisolating staff with redundancy.
5 from India on Cathay’s HK-KL flight test +ve
Cathay Pacific Airways said on Sunday that a Cathay Dragon service between Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong will be suspended until October 3 after some connecting passengers on a flight from India were found infected. Cathay Pacific said in a statement that five passengers from India who were on a Cathay Dragon flight between Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong on September 18 tested positive for Covid-19, even after they submitted negative nucleic acid tests before their trip. The passengers were earlier on an India Express flight.
Russia registers most new cases in two months
Russia reported 6,148 cases of Covid-19 in the past day, the most new cases registered in two months. The number of new infections is up 30% since September 1, when schools opened nationwide, according to data from the country’s coronavirus response centre. Russia has had 1,103,399 cases, the fourth highest total globally, after the US, India and Brazil. Moscow reported 860 new infections overnight, the most since June 25.
France hits another record since lockdown
France’s daily coronavirus cases surged to the highest since the national lockdown ended in May. Another 13,498 cases were reported on Saturday, the second straight day over 13,000.
The higher numbers reflect to some degree increased testing, now five times the level performed in May to over one million a week. But the pace of infections is at its highest since the start of the outbreak, based on rolling 7-day data that smooths out reporting spikes.
Authorities have been calling on the population to step up social distancing measures as the number of clusters has been increasing in past weeks.