Coronavirus live news: global cases near 60m as France prepares to ease lockdown | World news

Indonesia has reported a record daily rise in coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, with 5,534 new cases, bringing the total to 511,836, according to its COVID-19 task force.

The task force’s data also showed 114 new COVID-19 deaths, bringing total fatalities to 16,225.

Southeast Asia’s biggest country has the region’s highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths

In Germany Saxony’s premier Michael Kretschmer has warned of a collapse of medical care in the coming weeks as 16 federal state leaders and Chancellor Angela Merkel are due to meet to discuss restrictions for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

He told MDR radio:

The situation in the hospitals is worrying… We cannot guarantee medical care at this high level (of infections).

REuters reports that the federal states are expected to decide on Wednesday to extend the “lockdown light” until Dec. 20, keeping bars, restaurants and entertainment venues shut while schools and shops stay open.

A draft proposal on Tuesday showed the plan would reduce the number of people allowed to meet to five from Dec. 1, but allow gatherings of up to 10 people over Christmas and New Year to let families and friends celebrate together.

State leaders will also discuss whether to split school classes into smaller units and teach them at varying times, as well as a possible earlier start of Christmas school holidays.

The government plans to extend financial aid for firms hit by the restrictions, which, according to sources, could add up to 20 billion euros ($23.81 billion) in December to an estimated 10-15 billion euros bill in November.

Conservative parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus urged the federal states to take over part of the costs for the coronavirus measures. He told the RTL/ntv broadcaster:

It is now time for the states to take on financial responsibility.

Germany has reported a record 410 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, Reuters reports.

It comes as Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with 16 federal state leaders to discuss restrictions for the Christmas and new year holidays.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 18,633 to 961,320, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.

That was 1,072 cases more than the day before but 5,015 less than the record increase reported on Friday.

Russia has reported a record 507 coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours on, taking its national death toll to 37,538 since the pandemic began.

Authorities confirmed 23,675 new cases of the virus, including 4,685 in Moscow, taking the total number of infections to 2,162,503 since the start of the outbreak.

In the UK, where the government has said three households will be able to gather for five days over Christmas, many voices are, in fact, advising people not to do so.

Last night, Prof Andrew Hayward, a member of the government’s Sage advisory committee, told the BBC’s Newsnight programme:

Effectively what this will be doing is throwing fuel on the Covid fire.

He said household mixing at Christmas would “likely lead to a third wave” and is a “recipe for regret”.

This morning, the Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, said the decision to agree a relaxing of restrictions over Christmas was to avoid a “free for all”. Speaking to Good Morning Britain, he said:

I think it was very clear to us from the advice we received at the Cobra meeting, but also from what we hear in Wales, that unless we found a formula that allowed people to get together over Christmas, people were very unlikely to be willing to stick to the current level of restrictions that we have here in Wales.

So the choice was between a guided form of meeting over Christmas or people simply making their own solutions.

Drakeford said it was “not a matter of encouraging people” to gather over the festive period. He added:

It is finding a set of rules that give us a guided way to Christmas – without the rules that we’ve agreed, I think the risk was very high that people would simply make up the rules for themselves.

It’s Thanksgiving in the US tomorrow, and officials have been urging people to stay at home rather than travelling to see family.

The New York Times have done a zippy map, showing where people are staying home, and where they aren’t. It worked with survey firm Dynata, which analysed more than 150,000 survey responses from Nov. 13-23.

Nationwide, the survey found that only about 27% of Americans plan to dine with people outside their household. But there is substantial regional variation: in parts of Vermont only about 14% of households will be celebrating with people outside their household; in parts of Missouri, more than half of residents plan to.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday urged Americans to avoid travel for Thanksgiving and to celebrate only with members of their immediate households.

Erin Sauber-Schatz, who leads the agency’s community intervention and critical population taskforce, said:

The safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving this year is at home with members of your household.

If you haven’t already seen it, this map from Georgia Tech assesses the risk level of attending an event, given the event size and location.

Having once had the highest Covid-19 rate in south-east Asia, Singapore has all but eradicated the virus after reporting 14 days without any new local cases on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

Singapore’s government said it had snuffed out the last cluster of infection at a worker dormitory.

While Singapore has reported zero local cases for two weeks, there has been a trickle of infected people arriving from abroad who have been immediately isolated, authorities say.

This is Alexandra Topping, with you for the next few hours. My thanks, as ever, to the blogging legend that is Helen Sullivan. Please do get in touch from where you are and let us know what is going on, and if we have missed anything. I’m on

lexandra.topping@theguardian.com and I’m @lexytopping on Twitter – my DMs are open.

That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan.

Here is a story about a prank call – just released to the public – that happened all the way back in January, before we knew so much more about coronavirus than anyone should have to:

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

• Global cases near 60m. There are currently 59,759,494 known coronavirus cases worldwide, according to hte Johns Hopkins University tracker, as the world nears another sad milestone: 60m cases.The virus has killed more than 1.4m people around the world.
• Test and trace fails to contact 110,000 in English Covid hot spots. The British government’s £22bn test-and-trace system has failed to reach more than 100,000 people exposed to coronavirus in England’s worst-hit areas since the second wave began, official figures show, with four in 10 not asked to self-isolate.
• Japan has withdrawn the cities of Osaka and Sapporo from its controversial Go To Travel campaign, which was launched in July to help the country’s Covid-hit economy. Pressure has been building on the government to rethink the scheme, which offers generous discounts on travel and accommodation, after experts said it was contributing to the recent rise in coronavirus infections in parts of Japan.
• French president says lockdown to ease starting this weekend. In France, president Emmanuel Macron announced a three-stage easing of the country’s month-long lockdown, beginning this weekend with the reopening of “non-essential” businesses such as hairdressers and clothes shops, which will have to observe strict distancing rules and close at 9pm.
• CDC may shorten quarantine period guidelines. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may soon shorten the length of self-quarantine period recommended after potential exposure to the coronavirus, a top official said on Tuesday. Health authorities currently recommend a 14-day quarantine in order to curb transmission of the virus but an official said Tuesday that there is evidence that the period could be shortened if patients are tested for the virus during their quarantine.
• A senior leader of India’s Congress party died of coronavirus related complications on Wednesday, his family said, a second veteran from the opposition group to fall victim to the virus in recent days, as total cases in the country touched the 9.2 million mark. Ahmed Patel, a lawmaker who was party treasurer and was seen as close to the Gandhi family that leads the party, was detected with Covid-19 a month ago and died of multi-organ failure, his family said in a statement.