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  • while we await a vaccine and lock down started lived in some parts of the world, the number of new cases globally continues to rise.

  • Here's the latest warning from the World Health Organization.

  • We expect to reach a total of 10 million cases within the next week.

  • This is a sober reminder that even as we continue research into vaccines and therapeutics, we have an urgent responsibility to do everything we can with the tools we have now to suppress, transmission and save lives until the vaccines found, the fear of a second wave of Kobe 19 is definitely riel.

  • Today in the UK, health experts have urged ministers to carry out a review to make certain that the UK will be ready if a second wave arrives.

  • In this letter, published in the British Medical Journal, they say the available evidence indicates that local flare ups are increasingly likely on a second wave, a really risk now, there also a lot of unknowns.

  • Here's what's been said on that we still don't have an answer as to why my colleagues from the black, Asian and minority ethnic groups are more likely to die from this illness.

  • These are all things that urgently need looking into in a no blame forward looking way so that we can be prepared on put measures in for a potential of a second wave in October and the winter next for the latest on the virus figures here in the UK The BBC Science editor David Shipman.

  • So what's the state of the virus right now?

  • Well, things have definitely been going in the right direction.

  • This line is a rolling seven day average of new infections across the UK far lower now than it was at the peak back in April.

  • But let's compare that to the rest of Europe.

  • In the UK, we're getting about 1000 new infections every day.

  • Germany, France, Italy, Spain all getting far fewer.

  • Again, This is a one week average for the numbers, and that gives them a much better chance to tackle any new outbreaks.

  • Now we've heard this term second wave a lot having me, but understanding what it actually means isn't quite as simple as you might think.

  • There's no formal definition, one academics told the BBC.

  • It's not particularly scientific how you how do you define a wave says is arbitrary but generally in order to say one way of has ended, you would expect the virus to being put under control and cases to have fallen substantially for a second wave to start while you need a sustained rise in infections.

  • So New Zealand, which had its first cases after 24 days without on Beijing, which is facing an outbreak after 50 days without are not in this position yet.

  • But some scientists now argue Iran, maybe starting to meet the criteria for a second wave.

  • Of course, you won't hear the Iranian government looking at its situation in those terms.

  • His run around, poor from BBC Persian, we can see a difference.

  • So for a period of a couple of weeks did the deaths went to below 100 every day, which is probably a result off a few weeks locked down around March around the Iranian New Year.

  • But it's going up and we now have more, more and more cases.

  • Today, for instance, we had 2500 confirmed cases on 120 deaths, so it is definitely going up.

  • But for some reasons that are unknown to us, the officials are refusing to call it a second wave.

  • We know that the president of the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, has said that we don't want to create fear among people, and it's important to know that Iran, on their sanctions and under huge systematic corruption, is running out of money so they really can't support people, and they are not in a position to reintroduce a lock down.

  • Also on another development, the BBC Persian service has done research about the excess deaths that have been announced only for winter on it seems that the confirmed that is probably five times less than the actual numbers.

  • It seems that during that period, more than 6000 excess it's were reported, and it seems that the number off that is probably way more than what the official numbers up.

  • Now, Iran aside, we can say we're not seeing second waves yet, but we are definitely seeing local outbreaks.

  • Here's one example.

  • The German state of North Rhine Westphalia has reimposed locked down restrictions in two districts after a spike in cases.

  • That decision affects more than half a 1,000,000 people.

  • One area his home to a meatpacking plant where more than 1500 workers have tested positive.

  • Here's more on the situation from Damien McGinnis.

  • Just a life in Germany feels like it's getting back to normal.

  • People here have been thrown back into lock down and the whole region is being tested.

  • It is a catastrophe, I think, and we see it here and good, too slow.

  • I only hope that the working conditions of being improved for the workers.

  • 7000 workers from Germany's largest meat processing plant are in quarantine after more than 1500 employees tested positive with the virus.

  • They're getting supplies, and the army has been drafted in to help.

  • But police are ensuring people comply with force if necessary.

  • Many of the employees are poorly paid seasonal migrant workers from Eastern Europe.

  • Some don't speak German and feel like they're being locked up.

  • Tania's is the largest meat processing plant in Germany.

  • A family firm run by billionaire Clement attorney is known here as the meat baron.

  • He's accused of causing the outbreak through poor working conditions and cramped accommodation.

  • But meat processing plants and ABBA twas all over the world have been hit by Corona virus outbreaks.

  • Scientists say they are particularly susceptible physical factors like low temperature moisture.

  • People are working very closely together.

  • There's no way they can keep the distance off two meters.

  • It's noise, a safe to shout if they want to talk to each other.

  • But also there are often crowded living conditions because the people who are coming there, many of them, are migrants.

  • The region's political leaders are also under fire for not acting quickly enough.

  • But overall, Germany's national infection rates remain low on, officials say.

  • So far, localized outbreaks have been contained, so there's no evidence yet of a second wave.

  • Damien McGuinness, BBC News Berlin Well, for all these reasons, we can understand why countries are wary of going too fast too soon.

  • You investors have bean discussing just these issues today.

  • They've been looking at the issue of reopening borders from the first of July, and there are some reports that travelers from the U.

  • S.

  • Could be among those not allowed in.

  • I should say that's not been confirmed.

  • This graph from The Washington Post may explain why some people like that idea.

  • It compares the number of new cases in the U.

  • S.

  • With the EU, and you can see the degree to which those figures have dropped off in the EU and haven't dropped off in the US Well, in the end, that meeting between you ambassadors didn't reach a consensus.

  • Today they'll talk again on Friday and will await some more details on their plans.

  • Looking across the pandemic as a whole, though, is the latest summary we have from the World Health Organization.

  • We have been able to show in Western Europe with a lot of effort that we can slow the spread.

  • But we are not as a world on top of this pandemic.

  • It's really very much with us, and it will be with others for months, perhaps even years to come.

while we await a vaccine and lock down started lived in some parts of the world, the number of new cases globally continues to rise.

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