while we await a vaccine and lockdown
start to lift 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 and until of
vaccines found the fear of a second wave
of kovat 19 is definitely real 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 and a second wave a
real risk now there are 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
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 and put measures
in for a potential effective wave in
October and the winter thanks for the
latest on the virus figures here in the
UK this 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 7 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
a thousand 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 haven't we 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
how do you define a wave he says its
arbitrary but generally in order to say
one wave is ended you would expect the
virus to have been put under control in
cases to have fallen substantially for a
second wave to start well you would need
a sustained rise in infections so New
Zealand which had its first cases after
24 days without and Beijing which is
facing an outbreak after 50 days without
are not in this position yet but some
scientists now argue Iran may be
starting to meet the criteria for a
second wave though of course you won't
hear the Iranian government looking at
its situation in those terms his
runaround pour from BBC Persian we can
see a difference so for a period of
couple of weeks be the deaths went to
below 100 every day which is probably a
result of a few weeks lockdown around
march around the Iranian New Year but
it's going up and we now have more more
and more cases so today for instance we
had 2,500 confirmed cases and 120 deaths
so it is definitely going up but for
some reasons there are unknown to us the
officials are refusing to call it a
second wave we know that the president
therein and president Hassan rouhani has
said that we don't want to create fear
among people and it's important to know
that Iran under sanctions and on their
huge systemic corruption is running out
of money so they really can't support
people and they are not in a position to
reintroduce a lockdown also on another
development the BBC Persian Service has
done a research about the excess deaths
that have been announced only for winter
and it seems that the confirmed deaths
is probably five times less than the
actual numbers it seems that during that
period more than 6000 excess deaths were
reported and it seems that the number of
this is probably way more than what the
official numbers are 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
reimpose lockdown restrictions in two
districts after a spike in cases that
decision affects more than half a
million people
area is home to a meatpacking plant
where more than 1500 workers have tested
positive his more on the situation from
Damian McGinnis
just as life in Germany feels like it's
getting back to normal people here have
been thrown back into lockdown
and the whole region is being tested it
is a catastrophe I think and we see it
here in Goethe slow I only hope that the
working conditions are being improved
for the workers 7,000 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 Tonia's is the largest meat
processing plant in Germany a family
firm run by billionaire Clement Tonia's
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 abattoirs all over
the world have been hit by coronavirus
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 of two meters it's noisy though
as they have to shout if they want to
talk to each other but also they 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 and officials say so
far localized outbreaks have been
contained so there's no evidence yet of
a second wave Damian McGinnis BBC News
Berlin well for all these reasons we can
understand why countries are wary of
going too fast too soon
EU ambassadors have been discussing just
these issues today they've been looking
at the issue of reopening borders from
the 1st of July and there are some
reports that travelers from the US could
be among those not allowed in I should
say that's not being confirmed this
graph from the Washington Post may
explain why some people like that idea
it compares the number of new cases in
the US 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 u.s. well in the end
that meeting between EU 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
here's 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 us for
months perhaps even years to come
you