Volunteers in the UK, Brazil and South Africa receive first doses of experimental vaccine Oxford University rolled out Africa’s first human trials for a potential vaccine against the new coronavirus in South Africa on Wednesday, as cases continue to rise and concerns grow over potential access to life-saving treatments. Researchers in Brazil began administering the same experimental coronavirus vaccine to volunteers there, the Federal University of Sao Paulo said Wednesday. Brazil was selected because it is one of the countries where the virus is spreading fastest. It has the second-highest caseload and death toll worldwide after the United States, with more than 1.1 million people infected and 52,000 killed so far. The vaccine, developed together with pharmaceuticals group AstraZeneca, is one of the most promising of the dozens that researchers worldwide are racing to test and bring to market. The South African trial, conducted with local partner University of the Witwatersrand, will consist of 2,000 volunteers from 18 to 65 years of age, including some HIV positive patients, who will be monitored for 12 months after vaccination to asses how well the vaccine guards against Covid-19. Hopes are that South Africa’s involvement in vaccine trials will ensure the continent will have access to an affordable vaccine and not be left at the back of the queue. South Africa is the second country outside of the United Kingdom to take part in the Oxford trial after Brazil launched its study on Wednesday. The ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine, also known as AZD1222, was originally developed by Oxford University scientists, who are now working with AstraZeneca on development and production. There are over 4,000 participants enrolled in the UK, with enrolment of an additional 10,000 participants planned, the university said in a statement on Wednesday. A larger study of the same vaccine in up to 30,000 participants is planned in the United States. Dutch brothels can reopen on 1 July Dutch brothels can reopen on 1 July after being shut for more than three months because of the coronavirus pandemic, the government announced on Wednesday. The authorisation applies to “all work involving (physical) contact”, Prime Minister Mark Rutte told a news conference. The government had initially targeted 1 September for the reopening of brothels. As with hairdressers and masseurs, which have already been allowed to resume operations, sex workers are encouraged to verify that their clients do not have Covid-19 symptoms. “Everyone is very happy with the news that we can finally reopen,” said Felicia Anna, president of the union of sex workers in Amsterdam’s red light district. “We have no more money,” she told the Dutch news agency ANP. The government also announced that football stadiums can once again open their doors to fans but only under conditions including a mandatory 1.5 metre (five feet) distance between occupied seats. ANP said the rule would leave stadiums operating at about one-third capacity. The Netherlands has had some 50,000 reported Covid-19 infections with more than 6,000 deaths. ‘Stay away from us’: hostile response for New Zealanders returning home to Covid ‘lifeboat’ Charlotte Graham-McLay reports for the Guardian from Wellington: When Ellen, 30, a New Zealander returning home from London, arrived at Auckland airport after a long-haul flight, she understood that she would be transported to a local hotel a short bus ride away for a fortnight’s government-mandated quarantine. Instead – with no warning, or chance to buy water or use the toilet – she found herself on a four-hour bus trip to Rotorua, a city 225km away, to spend her quarantine there. When she tweeted about her experience – New Zealand’s government had started to use hotels in Rotorua and the South Island city of Christchurch to quarantine returning travellers as Auckland reached capacity – it didn’t take long for responders to chide Ellen for what they saw as complaining. “Stay away from us until you’re declared safe,” one wrote. “So sorry if we don’t care about your food needs.” It was just one example of the backlash from some quarters against New Zealanders returning to the country in search of safety from the pandemic raging on other shores. In a nation in the rare position of returning to normal life free from Covid-19, New Zealanders are roiling with anxiety as coronavirus cases ratchet up in other countries, fearing the virus could be imported here. And some would rather pull up the drawbridge. Australia’s Qantas airlines will sack 6,000 workers as part of a plan to recover from the coronavirus pandemic that will also see it go to the market for an additional AU$1.9bn (US$1.3bn) in funding. An additional 15,000 workers will remain stood down “for some time”, until domestic and international flights resume, said the airline’s chief executive, Alan Joyce. Qantas has about 30,000 workers. It’s a bitter blow for workers, and the entire airline sector, which is already dealing with the collapse into administration of the Qantas rival Virgin Australia. Qantas has talked up its prospects during the crisis, raising money by mortgaging its planes to keep going. But today’s announcement is a recognition that it is anything but immune to the effects of a crippling shutdown that has already pushed Virgin to the brink. WHO warns pandemic has not yet reached its peak in the Americas As Tedros warned of a shortage in oxygen supply in the face of cases increasing by about 1 million per week, the head of the WHO emergencies programme, Dr Mike Ryan, said the pandemic in many Latin American countries was still intense as deaths in the region surpassed 100,000 this week. Many countries had experienced 25-50% increases in cases in the past week, he said. “I would characterise the situation in the Americas in general as still evolving, not having reached its peak yet, and likely to result in sustained numbers of cases and continued deaths,” he said. The United States has criticised WHO’s handling of the pandemic, calling the agency “China-centric”. President Donald Trump demanded an immediate review and reforms and has pledged to quit the Geneva-based body. European governments are also working with the United States on an overhaul plan. While Tedros has pledged accountability and a post-pandemic review, Ryan said on Wednesday the agency was holding internal talks over its actions including what it has learned about controlling the virus. Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan. I’ll be bringing you the latest from around the world for the next few hours. I’d love to hear from you – tips, news, good tweets, comments and questions welcome: Twitter: @helenrsullivan Email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com The world faces a shortage of oxygen concentrators as coronavirus infections climb by about 1 million per week – and look set to reach 10 million by the end of this week, the World Health Organization head said on Wednesday. “Many countries are now experiencing difficulties obtaining oxygen concentrators,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. “Demand is currently outstripping supply.” Here are the key developments from the last few hours: Known coronavirus cases are nearing 9.4m, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, with 9,391,433 currently confirmed. There have been 479,818 deaths in the pandemic so far. Both cases and deaths are likely to be higher due to differing testing rates and definitions, delays and suspected underreporting. Texas Covid-19 cases hit all-time daily high as Houston hospitals near capacity. Texas recorded an all-time daily high of 5,489 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday as hospitals neared capacity in Houston. The dramatic increase in cases prompted the governor, Greg Abbott, to tighten public health restrictions after resisting calls to slow the state’s reopening process. Cases have steadily increased in Texas since March, but a surge in the past two weeks has activated concerns about the state’s ability to respond. Pandemic rule enforcement in Europe disproportionately impacted racialised individuals and groups, who were targeted with violence, discriminatory identity checks, forced quarantines and fines, according to a report by Amnesty International on 12 European countries. Volunteers in Brazil and South Africa began to receive injections of an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by researchers at Oxford University. The vaccine, developed together with AstraZeneca, is one of dozens that researchers worldwide are racing to test and bring to market. It is already being tested on volunteers in Britain. The award-winning poet and children’s author Michael Rosen returned home after 47 days in intensive care with Covid-19. He went into intensive care in March, with his family at the time warning that he was “very poorly”. On 6 June he took his first steps, and by 12 June he was back on Twitter, sharing his progress as he began walking again. The International Monetary Fund said the global economy will take a $12tn (£9.6tn) hit from the Covid-19 pandemic after slashing its already gloomy growth projections for the UK and other developed countries in 2020. The IMF said it would take two years for world output to return to levels at the end of 2019. Americans and Russians could be kept out when the EU reopens its borders to outsiders, according to documents seen by Reuters. Draft recommendations from the EU’s current presidency, Croatia, suggest allowing non-EU nationals in from countries with stable or decreasing infections, and those with a “comparable or better epidemiological situation”. Iran’s deputy health minister has called for mask wearing to be made compulsory, as the country reported its highest daily coronavirus death toll in more than two-and-a-half months on Wednesday. The health ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday that 133 fatalities in the past 24 hours brought the country’s overall virus death toll to 9,996. Portugal has tightened restrictions in and around Lisbon after recording thousands of new cases in recent weeks. From 21 May to 21 June, the country has documented more than 9,200 new cases – a rate per 100,000 inhabitants that ranks among the highest in Europe, behind only Sweden, according to data compiled by news agency AFP. India has recorded its highest one-day rise in new coronavirus cases, with 15,968 infections detected in the past 24 hours. So far, 456,183 people in India have tested positive for the virus. Latin America’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 100,000 on Tuesday, according to Reuters, while the number of infections, at 2.2m, doubled in less than a month. The region has seen a spike in cases and deaths even as the tide of infection recedes in Europe and parts of Asia. France’s coronavirus contact-tracing app has alerted just 14 people that they have been near someone with the virus in three weeks since its launch, with only 68 people signalling they have tested positive on the app. Digital minister Cédric O said the app was installed 1.8m times since 2 June, but had been subsequently uninstalled by 460,000. Austria has issued a warning against travel to the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia after a coronavirus outbreak at a meatpacking plant there, Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Wednesday. Seven US states have reported their highest coronavirus patient admissions in the pandemic so far. Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas – which also confirmed a record daily case increase on Tuesday – each admitted record numbers of infected people to hospital, the Washington Post reported. UK medical leaders warned of “real risk” of a coronavirus second wave just a day after the biggest lifting yet of lockdown restrictions in England. “While the future shape of the pandemic in the UK is hard to predict, the available evidence indicates that local flare-ups are increasingly likely and a second wave a real risk,” said the experts.