COVID-19 media surveillance - 20 August 2020

This media surveillance collects articles reported through publicly available web sites.

It is created with the Europe Media Monitor (EMM).

The selection and placement of stories are determined automatically by a computer program.

Headlines

• The US surpassed the mark of 170,000 deaths this week.
• Brazil reported 49,298 new cases in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 3,456,652
• Spain: coronavirus deaths reported by Spain’s Health Ministry beginning to rise
• Italy records highest number of daily cases since May with 642 new cases
• France: daily cases hit new post-lockdown high with 3,776 new cases registered on Wednesday
• Germany records highest number of new cases since April; travelers returning from Spain are required to submit to a mandatory test or quarantine for 14 days
• Belgium: Two in three people in Flanders are no longer motivated to strictly follow the coronavirus measures, research conducted by the University of Ghent shows; schools to reopen in September with masks mandatory for older children
• Luxembourg registered 67 new cases on Wednesday
• Russia reported over 4,700 new cases in the past day; Covid-19 vaccine trials on 40,000 people will start next week
• Malaysia: A mutation of the coronavirus that is far more infectious than the original Wuhan strain has been detected in Malaysia.
• South Africa has highest number of confirmed cases in Africa and fifth highest globally with close to 600,000 cases
• India registered a record number of fresh Covid-19 cases on Wednesday with over 70,000 new daily cases
• Australia: new infection numbers rise in state of Victoria
• New Zealand reports five new confirmed cases amid fresh outbreak in Auckland; Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has delayed the country’s national elections by four weeks
• South Korea fears fresh nationwide outbreak after seven straight days of new cases in triple figures
• China reports seven new cases on August 19, fourth day of zero local cases
• Japan: Tokyo reported on Thursday 339 additional cases, 1,152 nation-wide

Twitter

The following news were found among the most mentioned/retweeted items:

• "Southeast Asia detects mutated virus strain sweeping the world" (bloomberg)
• "New mutant strain of new coronavirus confirmed in Southeast Asia" (bloomberg)
• "Germany to extend coronavirus furlough to 24 months" (theguardian)
• "Trump warns of a ‘big surge’ of coronavirus in New Zealand, which had just recorded nine new cases" (washingtonpost)
• "UNC-Chapel Hill pivots to remote teaching after coronavirus spreads among students during first week of class" (washingtonpost)
• "Scientists see signs of lasting immunity to COVID-19, even after mild infections" (chicagotribune)
• "Spain’s mounting coronavirus crisis is met by government silence" (bloomberg)

The most mentioned English sources were the New York Times, CNN, the Guardian, the Washington Post and NBC news.

RT (Spanish Version), La Republica, Infobae, El Diario and El Pais, and Le Monde and Le Parisien were among the most mentioned Spanish and French sources, respectively.

Extracted Quotes

Kazuhiro Tateda (Japan, Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases):
"We were able to somehow overcome ‘the first wave’ after the state of emergency was declared"; "But we are now in the midst of a second wave."

Fact Check

• Fact checkers continue to debunk claims that masks are ineffective in slowing the spread of COVID-19 and can cause hypercapnia (boomlive).
• Fact checkers debunk a viral claim on Facebook and WhatsApp that coronavirus can be killed with the help of steam (vishvasnews).
• They debunk a claim about mouthwash killing coronavirus (vishvasnews).
• Fact checkers debunk the claim that it was Putin's daughter to receive the COVID-19 vaccine first (misbar, checkyourfact).
• Vastly debunked are claims for the fatal effect of the vaccines, including claims that the Russian President Putin’s daughter died after receiving the second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine (thelogicalindian, snopes), and also that one of the first volunteers of a COVID-19 vaccine trial in the United Kingdom died (verafiles).
• Fact checkers debunk claims that flu vaccines make children more vulnerable to coronavirus infections (boomlive).
• Fact checkers debunk a claim that went viral on social media that COVID-19 is a bacterium and not a virus (altnews).
• They continue to debunk conspiracy theories about Bill Gates plans to forcefully vaccinate and depopulate Africa amid the novel coronavirus pandemic (boomlive).
• The debunking of claims that the coronavirus was designed in a lab and global health leaders knew the crisis would occur also continues (boomlive).
• Fact checkers debunk claims that Facebook is using posts in lawsuits against it amid the COVID-19 pandemic (vishvasnews).
• Fact checkers debunk claims spread in the US and Italy that under the COVID legislation school authorities can quarantine children with COVID-19 symptoms outside their family home without their parents' or guardians' consent (facta.news, snopes).
• Fact checkers debunk a Brazilian claim that all deaths by respiratory failure and pneumonia are being registered as COVID-19, according to the Civil Registry website (poynter).

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Contact

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