COVID-19 media surveillance - 12 June 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

• USA: The US surpassed 2 million cases on Thursday with at least 112,000 deaths
• Brazil surpassed 40,000 deaths with more than 800,000 cases
• UK: positive tests continue to fall in England according to the Office for National Statistics; UK economy shrinks record 20.4% in April due to lockdown
• Spain reports 156 new cases in 24 hours and 32 deaths in a week
• Italy reports 379 new cases of which 252 in Lombardy region
• France: cases fall in France despite easing of lockdown
• Belgium reports 108 new cases and 32 hospital admissions
• Luxembourg: Excess mortality in Luxembourg was in line with deaths claimed by Covid-19, a sign that underreporting was no issue
• Russia reported 8,987 new cases bringing its nationwide tally of infections to 511,423
• Mexico surpasses 130,000 cases with 15,944 deaths
• India reports 10,956 new cases and 396 deaths in biggest single-day spike
• Iran surpassed 182,000 cases
• Pakistan reports biggest 1-day jump in cases with 6,397 new cases
• South Korea: greater Seoul under extended social distancing as case numbers rise
• Japan: Tokyo confirms 25 cases, over key threshold for second day
• China sees first locally spread case of novel coronavirus in weeks

Twitter

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

• "Twitter takes down Beijing-backed influence operation pushing coronavirus messages" (reuters)
• "Madhya Pradesh: Aslam Baba who treated coronavirus by kissing peoples’ hand, dies; 24 contacts test positive" (newsd)
• "Earlier coronavirus second wave feared in Europe after mass protests" (reuters)
• "NHS contact-tracing app cannot be used in crowded tower blocks, ministers warned" (theindependent)
• "The coronavirus pandemic isn’t ending — it’s surging" (washingtonpost)
• "Second wave of coronavirus hits Florida, Texas, Arizona after reopenings" (nypost)
• "White House coronavirus task forces continues retreat even as virus reemerges" (cnn)
• "The coronavirus is still killing thousands of Americans every week, but Trump isn’t very interested" (motherjones)
• "Trump rally-goers must agree they won't sue if they contract coronavirus" (cbnsnews)
• "Covid-19 patient gets double lung transplant, offering hope for others" (nytimes)

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

El Universal, RT (Spanish version), La Tercera, El Diario, Infobae and Okdiario, and Le Monde and Le Parisien were among the most mentioned Spanish and French sources, respectively.

Extracted Quotes

Michael Ryan (WHO, Executive Director):

"By no means is this over"; "If we look at the numbers over the last number of weeks, this pandemic is still evolving. It is still growing in many parts of the world".

Matshidiso Moeti (WHO, regional director for Africa):

"It took 98 days to reach the first 100,000 cases, and only 18 days to move to 200,000 cases"; "Even though these cases in Africa account for less than three percent of the global total, it’s clear that the pandemic is accelerating".

Fact Check

Fact checked: claims by public authorities

• Fact checkers debunk US President Donald Trump’s claim that “Tijuana is the most heavily infected place anywhere in the world”, reporting that San Diego has a much higher infection rate than the Mexican city (factcheck).

Fact checked: health-related claims

• Fact checkers debunk claims that Egypt has found a COVID-19 cure, which will be put on the market soon (fatabyyano).
• Mexican fact checkers debunk a social media post recommending a combination of three drugs and steam inhalation to cure COVID-19, reporting that the WHO recommends against self-medicating with any drugs (animalpolitico).
• Fact checkers debunk claims that drinking tea with lemon and baking soda prevents/cures COVID-19 (aajtak).
• Fact checkers debunk claims that Italian doctors discovered that COVID-19 is actually caused by a bacterium - not a virus - and can be cured with anti-inflammatory drugs, and that it is amplified by 5G electromagnetic radiation (afpchecamos).

Fact checked: conspiracy theories

• Fact checkers debunk a photo showing a woman carrying a body bag with one hand, claiming to prove that “false deaths” were used to inflate COVID-19 numbers; they report that the photo is from a protest against the mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis in the US, in which the bags were supposed to represent COVID-19 deaths (bol).

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