Curbs tightened over fears of a second wave

AIR TRAVEL UNLIKELY TO RECOVER BEFORE 2024 — IATA

Governments across the world imposed new restrictions yesterday in a bid to cool coronavirus hotspots as new infections shot up in some countries, sparking fears of a second wave.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that the virus does not appear to be affected by seasonality and the global death toll from the pandemic passed 660,000 yesterday.

100,000 deaths since July 9

More than 100,000 deaths have been recorded since July 9 and the global toll has doubled in just over two months. The Lebanese government ordered a nationwide lockdown from tomorrow until August 3. It will come back into force for another five days from August 6.

New cluster in China spreads to nine cities

Chinese authorities scrambled to halt the possibility of a second wave of infections after a new cluster in the northwest port city of Dalian spread to other provinces. China reporting 68 new infections yesterday, the highest daily number since April. Of those, 57 were in the northwest region of Xinjiang.

Health authorities said the Dalian cluster had now spread to nine cities in five regions.

Over the weekend, UK introduced a mandatory 14-day quarantine for travellers returning from Spain which has seen an uptick in cases. Yesterday, Prime

Minister Boris Johnson warned of a “second wave” in Europe.

Pandemic is ‘one big wave’, not seasonal, WHO warns

A WHO official described the pandemic as “one big wave” and warned against complacency in the northern hemisphere summer since the infection does not share influenza’s tendency to follow seasons. “We are in the first wave. It’s going to be one big wave. It’s going to go up and down a bit. The best thing is to flatten it and turn it into just something lapping at your feet,” Margaret Harris said.

Meanwhile, global airlines cut their recovery forecast, saying it would take until 2024 — a year longer than previously expected — for passenger traffic to return to pre-crisis levels. In an update on the pandemic’s crippling impact, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) cited slow virus containment in the US and developing countries, and a weaker outlook for corporate travel.