World Coronavirus Dispatch: What a Covid memorial might look like

Germany's ban on New Year fireworks sparks anger, Toronto shuts everything but schools, infection risk from using cash is low and other pandemic-related news around the globe

Ban on New Year fireworks irks Germans

Germany's plan to ban traditional fireworks for New Year has sparked anger from public and manufacturers alike. The move is aimed to curb large gatherings that can turn into super-spreaders during last three days of the year. Germans feel the freedom to setoff fireworks as a universal right despite infection rates soaring even after a partial shutdown. Manufacturers on the other hand staring at 90 per cent revenue loss, and they've already sunk this year. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and the regional leaders are expected to take a decision on Wednesday on whether it will be a sweeping fireworks ban or a partial one. Read more...

Let's look at global statistics

Global Infections: 59,762,055

Change over yesterday: 569,862

Global deaths: 1,409,301

Nations with most cases: US(12,591,165), India(9,222,216), Brazil(6,118,708), France(2,206,126), Russia (2,120,836) 

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Toronto has shut everything but schools

Coronavirus is making a strong comeback in Toronto, the fourth largest city in Canada, and officials are shutting down everything --- from bars to gyms to outdoor sporting --- except schools. Authorities believe the benefits of in-class learning far outweigh the risks of getting infected with Covid. So far, the transmission rates have been very low in schools as compared to a national positivity rate of 6 per cent. It's not that students won't be contagious, but schools are putting in place effective measures in preventing additional spread. Read on...

Africa's largest Covid treatment clinical trial

Thirteen countries in Africa with the help of global research instituions launched a clinical trial to find potential treatments for coronavirus early in mild to moderate cases. The study aims to prevent the disease from progressing to severe stage where hospitalisations are warranted and  burden the fragile health systems. The clinical trial will be carried out at 19 sites across 13 countries and led by doctors from African countries. The study will be an adaptive platform trial, an innovative one pioneered for cancer drugs that allows for several treatments to be simultaneously tested. Read more...

Covid risk from using cash is low

A research from Bank of England found that coronavirus transmission risk after using bank notes is extremly low. UK's central bank considered a plausible worst-case scenario of an infected person coughing or sneezing onto a note and found that the level of virus on the surface began to drop rapidly after an hour. After six hours, it had declined to 5 per cent or less. Read more

Turkey posts record virus deaths

Turkey's officials have asked its people to stay at home unless it's absolutely necessary to go out as the country reported record 153 deaths in a single day. The number of new cases reported over the past day doubled from a week ago, a pace unseen since the early stages of the pandemic when the increase was often exponential. Equally alarming is the fact that Turkey made a controversial tweak to its data reporting in July, excluding asymptomatic cases and reporting only symptomatic patients. Read on...

Specials

Long Read: The pandemic plight of UK university students

Despite the coronavirus crisis, students were encouraged to start their courses at UK universities on the promise of an undergraduate experience, but many say they have been abandoned with little in the way of financial or mental health support, locked down with strangers as Covid-19 tore through university accommodation, and forced to pay annual tuition fees of £9,250 for lessons over Zoom. A decade on from the student protests against the tripling of tuition fees, the pandemic has exposed deep fissures in the UK’s model of higher education. Read more...

How will the future remember Covid-19

The coronavirus is still on a rampage across the world with countries seeing a second, third and even a fourth wave of infections. How to immortalise a once in a century event like Covid-19 pandemic --- while it's still a force or after it wanes? Many disasters in the past have been remembered after it's over. But there are downsides to waiting. A traumatic event is an author of its own memorial. The feelings, facts, and ideas available during a calamity dissipate as it ebbs. The story is the result of how some of the most exciting designers might memorialise these times as they try to answer what a Covid-19 memorial might look like? Read on....