Amsterdam enforces face masks in crowded places Amsterdam and the port of Rotterdam on Wednesday made face masks compulsory in certain busy areas including the Dutch capital’s Red Light district, as coronavirus infections showed a worrying spike. The new measures come as the number of infections doubled in a week in the country, where more than 55,000 people have now been infected and some 6,150 have died. “We’re starting this experiment because we’re worried about the increasing number of coronavirus infections,” the Amsterdam city council said. “Face masks are compulsory in crowded and busy areas and where other measures didn’t work or have adverse economic effects,” it said in a statement. Despite council workers handing out free face masks, a mobile van with loudspeakers and police warning people, not everybody heeded the new measures, especially in the Red Light district. Many walked around maskless and law officers said they were only warning people and not handing out fines. “Unfortunately it fits in a bit with the profile of the city,” said one Red Light District resident who asked not to be named and who was wearing a multi-coloured mask. “Everything is possible and nothing is ever enforced here,” he said. “We are from Germany and I was like... ‘what the hell’ when I saw people were not wearing masks where its compulsory,” added Soph Schaller, 20, a nursery school teacher from Cologne in Germany. “There we are quite used to it and have been wearing masks for a while now,” she told AFP. In the port city of Rotterdam, police stopped a group of demonstrators who wanted to march against the enforced wearing of face masks, Dutch media said. Covid-19 job losses sees record numbers in UK seeking temporary work Record numbers of people in Britain are looking for temporary work as job losses across the country mount, according to recruitment firms that have been flooded with CVs. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and the accountancy firm KPMG said the number of people signing up to find temporary work rose in July at the fastest pace since records began in 1997. Italy threatens to ban Ryanair for alleged virus rule-breaking Italy’s national civil aviation authority ENAC has threatened to suspend Ryanair’s permit to fly in the country over alleged non-compliance with coronavirus safety rules, but the low-cost carrier denied flouting them.The authority accused the Irish airline of “repeated violations of the Covid-19 health regulations currently in force and imposed by the Italian government to protect the health of passengers”. “Not only is the obligation to distance passengers not respected, but the conditions for making an exception to that rule are also being ignored”, it said in a statement. If Ryanair continued to break the rules ENAC would “suspend all air transport activities at national airports, requiring the carrier to re-route all passengers already in possession of tickets,” it said. “The claims made in ENAC’s press release today are factually incorrect,” Ryanair responded.“Ryanair complies fully with the measures set out by the Italian government and our customers can rest assured that we are doing everything to reduce interaction on both our aircraft and at airports to protect the health of our passengers.” Italy was the first European Union country to be seriously affected by the pandemic, which has officially killed over 35,000, but its contagion rate is currently far below levels seen in other parts of the bloc. Spain sees highest post-lockdown cases Spain reported 1,772 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, marking the biggest jump since a national lockdown was lifted in June and beating the previous day’s record rise. The rate of increase in new cases, which does not include data from two regions, sharply rose from the previous day, while one more death was registered, bringing the total to 28,499. Cumulative cases, which include results from antibody tests on people who may have recovered, increased to 305,767 from 302,814, the health ministry said in a statement. Florida tops 500,000 virus cases as testing resumes after storm Florida has surpassed 500,000 coronavirus cases as testing ramps up following a temporary shutdown of some sites because of Tropical Storm Isaias. A long line of cars waited outside Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on Wednesday morning for a coronavirus testing site to reopen after being closed because of the storm. Florida reported 225 new deaths on Wednesday, bringing its seven-day average of daily reported deaths to a high of 185, behind Texas with 197.Florida’s rate is approaching a quarter of that seen in New York at its peak in mid-April. The number of people treated in hospitals statewide for the coronavirus continued a two-week decline, with 7,622 patients late Wednesday morning, a decrease of 175 from the previous day and down from highs of 9,500 two weeks ago. The Florida Department of Health reported 5,409 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday. Overall, Florida’s reported 502,739 cases ranks second to California, with more than 527,000 cases, and above Texas with more than 466,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.The Hard Rock site briefly shut down on Wednesday because of lightning in the area. Testing resumed once the weather cleared. Florida governor Ron DeSantis this week announced that quicker testing, with results in about 15 minutes, would be offered at the stadium and at Marlins Park. “Obviously if you are somebody that is symptomatic and you don’t get your result back for seven days that is not helpful. For asymptomatic test takers, if it takes seven days then the test is basically useless at that time,” DeSantis said. Global deaths pass 700,000 The coronavirus pandemic death toll passed 700,000 late on Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government data. The US accounts for the highest portion of those deaths, with 157,690. The next worst-affected in terms of number of lives lost is Brazil with 95,819. Mexico’s toll is 48,869; the UK’s is 46,295 and India’s is 39,795. WHO surge team arrives in South Africa The World Health Organization has deployed a “surge team” of 43 health experts to South Africa to help the country deal with the pandemic, which has seen nearly 530,000 cases confirmed in the country – the fifth-highest in the world – and 9,298 deaths. In a statement, the WHO explained: WHO will be deploying 43 experts from various fields to support the COVID-19 outbreak response management. The first 17 health expects will arrive today and include key expertise in epidemiology, surveillance, case management, infection, prevention and control, procurement, as well as community mobilization and health education. Among them is Dr David Heymann, a seasoned infectious disease epidemiologist and public health expert, who was at one-time Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment at WHO. He headed the response to the SARS epidemic in 2003, working with his team to mediate international efforts to halt the pandemic. Facebook removes Trump post for spreading false information on Covid Facebook has removed a post from Donald Trump’s page for spreading false information about the coronavirus, a first for the social company that has been harshly criticized for repeatedly allowing the president to break its content rules. The post included video of Trump falsely asserting that children were “almost immune from Covid-19” during an appearance on Fox News. There is evidence to suggest that children who contract Covid-19 generally experience milder symptoms than adults do. However, they are not immune, and some children have become severely ill or died from the disease. “This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from Covid-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful Covid misinformation,” a Facebook spokesperson said: Summary Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours. You can get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com. Questions, feedback, tips all welcome. The World Health Organization has deployed a “surge team” of 43 health experts to South Africa to help the country deal with the pandemic, which has seen nearly 530,000 cases confirmed in the country – the fifth-highest in the world – and 9,298 deaths. Meanwhile the global coronavirus death toll has passed 700,000. The US, with the highest toll worldwide, accounts for 157,690 of these deaths. Here are the other key developments from the last few hours: Italy threatens to ban Ryanair for alleged virus rule-breaking. Italy’s national civil aviation authority has threatened to suspend Ryanair’s permit to fly in the country over alleged non-compliance with coronavirus safety rules, but the low-cost carrier denied flouting them. France’s daily Covid-19 cases highest since end of May. France’s daily Covid-19 infections reached the highest in more than two months on Wednesday, with 1,695 new cases. The seven-day moving average stood above the 1,300 threshold for the first time since the end of April, when the country was still in lockdown. Fears grow in Turkey as daily virus cases top 1,000. Officials have expressed concern over the rising number of coronavirus cases as the daily infection toll exceeded 1,000 for the second day in a row. Florida tops 500K virus cases as testing resumes after storm. The state has surpassed 500,000 coronavirus cases as testing ramps up following a temporary shutdown of some sites because of Tropical Storm Isaias. Former Colombian president Uribe tests positive for coronavirus. Colombia’s former president Álvaro Uribe has tested positive for Covid-19, just a day after he was placed under house arrest as part of a witness tampering probe. Germany adds Belgium’s virus-hit Antwerp to quarantine list. Antwerp province was added to the list of coronavirus risk zones, requiring travellers arriving from the region to go into quarantine for 14 days unless they can produce a negative Covid-19 test.