Australia to deploy 500 more soldiers to Victoria state

US President Donald Trump on Monday sent a campaign email, typically used for soliciting donations, to make a different request of his supporters: consider wearing a mask.

The rare move comes after Trump avoided wearing a mask in public for months until he tweeted a photo of himself wearing one in a stark messaging pivot in July -- though footage later surfaced of Trump not wearing a mask later that day.

The shift to encouraging mask-wearing was primarily motivated by floundering poll numbers, a source familiar with the President's thinking told CNN last month, and came nearly three months after he publicly announced new mask recommendations from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- and two months since he mocked his election rival Joe Biden for wearing one.

In Monday's email, Trump highlighted mask wearing as a potential means of accelerating a return to normal life, lamenting the effects of the coronavirus using a stigmatizing and inaccurate term for the virus.

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Australia’s Defense Department will deploy 500 more troops to enforce stay-at-home orders in the state of Victoria, according to State Premier Daniel Andrews.

Andrews also announced new penalties for people found to be in breach of directions from the chief health officer, including a newly increased $3,540 on-the-spot fine for people who breach isolation orders, the largest instant penalty in Victoria.

Andrews added that people who conduct in “particularly selfish behavior” may also be taken to court, where they can be fined up to $14,290. 

Andrews said the new fines were being imposed because of the 3,000 door knocks on infected people -- who are meant to be self isolating -- 800 patients were not home.

Victoria’s Minister for Police Lisa Neville also warned that Victorian Police will be out in force to find people who are in breach of coronavirus restrictions, saying officers “will not hesitate” to fine people or even detain them in certain cases.

Victoria recorded 439 new Covid-19 cases and 11 fatalities in the past 24 hours, Andrews said. That brings the total number of cases reported in the state to 12,335 and the total death toll to 147.

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US President Donald Trump criticized Dr. Deborah Birx in a Monday tweet after she warned the pandemic is "extraordinarily widespread" in the US.

While Trump and other top White House officials have publicly attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the tweet marked the first time Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, publicly drew Trump's ire.

The dust-up comes as the country continues to be ravaged by coronavirus, with more than 155,000 US citizens dead and more than 4.7 million cases. Trump has consistently lied and misled mostly in attempts to downplay concerns about the virus as he presses for schools and businesses to reopen.

When Trump was asked what he meant in his tweet, the President sidestepped the question.

"Well, I think that we're doing very well and we have done as well as any nation," he told reporters at a press briefing Monday afternoon.

"I told Dr. Birx I think we're doing very well. She was in my office a little while ago. She's a person I have a lot of respect for. I think Nancy Pelosi's treated her very badly," Trump added. "And I'm just referring to the fact that I thought that, really, they should say the job we've done ... I think we're just doing very well."

Birx sounded the alarms during an appearance on CNN Sunday, telling CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" that the pandemic has reached a new phase.

She did not reject a warning by former Federal Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb that there could be 300,000 coronavirus deaths by the end of the year, saying, "Anything is possible."

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At a press briefing in Geneva on Monday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke about Friday’s meeting of the Emergency Committee on Covid-19.

He detailed the rise in cases since this initial meeting, going from fewer than 100 cases and no deaths outside China on January 30, to more than 17.5 million cases and 680,000 deaths.

Tedros said that in addition to the direct toll of Covid-19, it is also having a social, economic and political impact.

“The committee put forward a number of recommendations for countries to continue to implement to bring the virus under control,” he said.

According to Tedros, these range from sharing best practices, to enhancing political commitment, and leadership for national strategies.

Tedros also highlighted that a number of vaccines are in promising stages of development.

He gave examples which, among others, included testing, isolating and treating patients, informing communities, keeping physical distance and wearing a mask -- urging everyone to “do it all.”

“And when it’s under control, keep going,” Tedros said.

This week, WHO is also launching a mask challenge with partners from around the world, Tedros said, where they are encouraging people to post photos of themselves wearing masks.

“As well as being one of the key tools to stop the virus, the mask has come to represent solidarity,” he said.

Wearing a mask sends a powerful message, he said, that everyone is in this together. 

Sunny weather over the weekend in Brazil led to large gatherings of hundreds of people with no social distancing on Rio de Janeiro beaches. 

On Saturday, Rio de Janeiro City Hall began phase five of its reopening plan. Under this new phase, swimming and water sports are allowed; however, individuals cannot remain on the sand. Despite this, large groups of people defied the order. 

Around 400 people were asked to leave the sands of Copacabana and Ipanema beaches by the Municipal Guard of Rio de Janeiro, and more than 100 people were fined after being caught not wearing face masks in public. The fines cost 107 reais ($20).

Under phase five, City Hall authorizes the opening of bars, malls and restaurants with extended hours and street shops can also open on Sundays.

Vendors selling products, food and drinks are allowed on beaches, but the rental of tents and chairs, and the sale of alcoholic beverages is not yet allowed.

In 55 days of inspection, the Municipal Guard has registered 3,677 sanitary infractions.

Rio de Janeiro Mayor Marcelo Crivella said he is looking into a system for residents to reserve spaces in the sand by using their phones, according to a release from City Hall. The project is being discussed at the Secretariat of the Environment and has no implementation date yet.

The state of Rio de Janeiro has the second-highest number of cases and deaths in Brazil. Of the 167,225 cases, nearly 50% belong to the city of Rio de Janeiro. Of the 13,572 deaths in the state of Rio de Janeiro, nearly 60% belong to the city of Rio.

Authorities in Italy have found that only 2.5% of Italians, or 1,482,000 people, have Covid-19 antibodies despite it being one of the countries hardest hit by coronavirus in Europe.

According to the results of a national survey released on Monday, the northern region of Lombardy, the worse-hit by the pandemic, reported the highest number of people with antibodies, 7.5%, while the two main Italian islands, Sicily and Sardinia, had the lowest number of 0.3 % of the population. 

According to the survey, almost a third of those who tested positive for antibodies were asymptomatic and the most frequent source of infection, in 41.7% of the cases, is from a relative living in the same house. 

The current number of people with antibodies is six times higher than that registered during the pandemic, said Linda Laura Sabbadini, director of the National Institute for Statistics (Istat).  

More on the survey: The survey, carried out in collaboration with the Italian Red Cross, between May 25 and July 15, tested blood samples from 64,660 people from 2,000 villages and cities across Italy, split by sex, occupation and age groups. The survey did not include people living in health care facilities. 

In May, the government had said the survey would include 150,000 people, but "the health emergency made the survey procedure more complicated," but still "an incredibly useful source of data," Sabbadini explained during a news conference.