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What you need to know about the coronavirus today

Approval for Trump’s virus response sinks
American approval of President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has dropped to the lowest recorded level, the latest Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll shows, as new COVID-19 cases surged.

The poll shows that 37% of Americans approved of the way Trump has responded to the pandemic, the lowest since Reuters/Ipsos started asking the question at the beginning of March. Fifty-eight percent said they disapproved.

Trump has been slow to publicly acknowledge the severity of the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 120,000 Americans so far, and he has pushed states to reopen before some experts said it was safe to do so.

In his first post-pandemic rally, held in Oklahoma on Saturday, the president told thousands of supporters that testing was a “double-edged sword” and that he asked health officials to slow down testing in response to the public’s concern for the growing number of cases.

Second-wave fears in Australia
Australia’s second most populous state on Wednesday said a man in his 80s died overnight from the coronavirus, the country’s first death from the virus in more than a month, as concerns about a second wave of infections saw thousands queue for COVID-19 tests and supermarkets impose new restrictions.

Authorities in Victoria, which has become the virus hotspot in Australia, have been trying to contain the spread of the virus in half a dozen suburbs in the largest city of Melbourne hit by a spike in cases. It is believed the surge in new cases has been caused by family get-togethers attended by people with mild symptoms.

Australia has so far escaped a high number of casualties from the new coronavirus, with just over 7,500 infections and 103 deaths.

Fish off the menu in China
China’s appetite for salmon and other seafood has crashed this month, after a resurgence in coronavirus infections in Beijing was traced to chopping boards for imported salmon in a wholesale food market in the capital.

Exporters all the way to Europe are feeling the pinch as the virus scare prompts supermarkets and e-commerce players such as Taobao, JD.com and Meituan in China, the world’s top consumer of frozen and fresh seafood, to slash salmon sales.

Barron Qin, owner of a Beijing fish hotpot restaurant called Yufu Yuzai, said customers had been lining up everyday but now the restaurant was half empty despite not serving salmon.

“My hope is like a soap bubble, burst by the new round of the outbreak,” he said.

‘Light at end of tunnel’ in Germany
German business morale posted its strongest rise in June since records began and Europe’s largest economy should return to growth in the third quarter after the coronavirus pandemic hammered output in the spring, the Ifo institute said.

“Companies’ assessments of their current situation were somewhat better. Moreover, their expectations leaped higher. German business sees light at the end of the tunnel,” Ifo President Clemens Fuest said.

A robust healthcare system and widespread testing has helped Germany record fewer fatalities linked to COVID-19 than many other European countries. Even so, Europe’s largest economy is facing its worst recession since World War Two.

No name, no pint (and no writhing)
Drinkers in England’s pubs will have to give their name before they order a pint, and there will be no live acts or standing at the bar, the government said in advice for re-opening the sector next month.

Pubs, restaurants and hairdressers will have to keep a record of customers for 21 days to assist the state health service’s test and trace operation, which aims to identify and contain any local flare ups of COVID-19 and stop a second wave of infections.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was keen to enjoy a visit to the pub and urged people to go out and enjoy their new freedom to socialize next month, but cautioned that they would still need to act responsibly.

“We can’t have, you know, great sort of writhing scenes in the beer gardens when the virus could be passed on.”

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Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Swedish punters, Ali, Wine, Japan. Read concise views on the pandemic’s financial fallout from Breakingviews columnists across the globe.

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Emerging from lockdown

Big gaps between the number of male and female coronavirus cases in parts of Africa and the Middle East suggest that women may be struggling to access testing or care, an aid agency said. In Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen, more than 70% of reported cases were male, compared to a global average of 51%, and the same was true in Central African Republic, Chad and Somalia, said the International Rescue Committee.

Dozens of girls at an Indian care home for runaways and sexual abuse victims have tested positive for coronavirus, raising renewed scrutiny over the management of state-run shelters as the country faces a surge of new infections. The shelter in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has since been sealed, and the 57 girls who tested positive - five of whom were pregnant - were moved to hospitals, with staff put in quarantine, local officials said.

Authorities in Democratic Republic of Congo’s southeastern mining heartland are boosting efforts to tackle child labor amid concerns that the coronavirus pandemic could drive more families to put their children to work in mines, officials said. Congo is Africa’s main producer of copper and the top global source of cobalt, accounting for two-thirds of global supplies of the metal used in smartphones and electric car batteries.

COVID Science

Ceramic used in spine implants inactivates coronavirus

Silicon nitride, a ceramic often used in spinal implants because it kills bacteria by releasing disinfectant chemicals from its surface, can also inactivate the new coronavirus, according to a new study. In laboratory experiments, researchers in Japan exposed coronavirus particles to silicon nitride, aluminum nitride, and copper particles. All three materials showed greater than 99% viral inactivation after one minute, but silicone nitride is the safest of the three. Virus treated by the other two substances could still damage cells in other ways, the researchers reported on Saturday in a not-yet-peer-reviewed paper.

Antibody levels in recovered COVID-19 patients decline quickly

Antibody levels in recovered COVID-19 patients fell sharply within a few months after infection, according to a Chinese study of 37 symptomatic and 37 asymptomatic individuals, raising questions about the length of immunity an infection may confer against the novel coronavirus. Over 90% of those who initially had IgG antibodies - one of the main types of antibody induced after infection - showed sharp declines in 2 to 3 months.