The UN health agency said in a situation report published late Wednesday that 119,759 new cases had been recorded in the past day, while a further 5,494 patients had died.
The Americas continue to lead the count, with some 3.9 million cases, followed by Europe with 2.45 million.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the global number of COVID-19 cases has already surpassed 8.3 million, with more than 448,000 fatalities.
MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – The number of people, who have died of COVID-19 in Mexico, has risen by 667 to 19,747 within the past 24 hours, Jose Luis Alomia, the director of epidemiology at the Health Ministry, said.
He also said on late Thursday that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases had increased by 5,662 to 165,455 within the same period of time.
A day earlier, the Latin American nation has recorded 4,930 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 770 fatalities.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, more than 8.4 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 451,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil has increased by 22,765 to 978,142 within the past 24 hours, the national Ministry of Health said on late Thursday.
The death toll has risen by 1,238 to 47,748 people within the same period of time.
A day earlier, Brazil reported about 32,188 new cases of the coronavirus disease and 1,269 new fatalities.
Brazil comes second on a global tally of coronavirus cases after the United States, which has recorded over 2.1 million COVID-19 patients.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, more than 8.4 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 451,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
TORONTO (Sputnik) - Canada’s Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan underscored the importance of cooperation and sharing of best practices in the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic during a virtual meeting of NATO member states’ defense ministers.
“Continued cooperation and sharing best practices are key to our successful preparation for an uncertain future,” Sajjan said on Thursday.
The extraordinary times serve to remind everybody of how crucial it is to maintain positive and constructive relationships with friends and allies, Sajjan also said.
Canada supports the NATO’s efforts to procure personal protective equipment to more effectively fight the novel coronavirus pandemic, Sajjan added.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Moscow has registered 48 deaths of patients infected with COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the Russian capital's death toll to 3,531, the city's coronavirus response center said in a statement on Thursday.
"Another 48 patients, who were diagnosed with pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus infection, died in Moscow," it said.
In the previous day, 49 people infected with the coronavirus died in Moscow.
California on Thursday issued new guidelines requiring protective facemasks to be worn in most indoor and outdoor spaces to guarantee distancing as part of the state’s reopening strategy, according to the Associated Press.
“Science shows that face coverings and masks work,” said Governor Gavin Newsom in a statement, cited by the outlet. “They are critical to keeping those who are around you safe, keeping businesses open and restarting our economy.”
LONDON (Sputnik) - A further 1,218 cases of COVID-19 have been registered in the United Kingdom over the past 24 hours, taking the country’s case total above 300,000, the Department of Health and Social Care said Thursday.
Since the start of the outbreak, public health officials in the United Kingdom have now confirmed 300,469 positive tests for the coronavirus disease.
The latest increase to the case total is slightly above Wednesday’s rise of 1,115 positive tests.
Public health officials on Thursday also confirmed that the UK’s COVID-19 death toll rose by 135 over the preceding 24 hours. Since the start of the outbreak, 42,288 people have died due to complications from the disease, according to the department.
"Led by the Canadian Digital Service, and with the help of Shopify, BlackBerry and the government of Ontario we’ve been working on a nationwide mobile app that will notify users if they’ve been exposed to COVID-19", Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a daily press briefing on the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Trudeau said the use of the application would be voluntary and user’s privacy will be respected following reports the Canadian province of British Columbia has opted out of using the application due to privacy considerations.
"We will soon begin testing this app in Ontario. There are already a number of other provinces, including [British Columbia] who are working with us on this, but it will be available to everyone in the coming weeks", he said.
The Prime Minister also said Canada’s variation of the application addresses the shortfalls that have undermined contact tracing applications in other countries.
In contrast to other applications, Canada’s version, in part due to recently upgraded Apple and Google operating systems, will run in the background preserving battery life.
Trudeau also said the application will protect the users’ anonymity and all personal data will be securely stored in a federal database.
Privacy concerns have plagued rollout in numerous other countries leading to sparing use by residents.
Trudeau assured Canadians that the application was developed in coordination with Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, a claim that Conservative Member of Parliament Michelle Rempel Garner disputed. Garner said in a statement via Twitter that the Privacy Commissioner told a parliamentary committee that he has not been consulted.
"I would like to support you sincerely, as a friend, in these difficult times", Putin said in the message and wished Nazarbayev speedy recovery.
TORONTO (Sputnik) - Newly released COVID-19 data from the Canadian province of Ontario indicates that the country’s infection total has surpassed 100,000 cases.
On Thursday, Ontario reported 173 new cases that pushed Canada’s COVID-19 tally to 100,026, while the country’s death toll stands at 8,257.
The province of Quebec remains the epicenter of the outbreak in Canada, accounting for more than half of all confirmed cases - 54,263 - and 5,298 deaths. The province of Ontario comes second with 32,917 confirmed cases and 2,553 fatalities.
Laboratories across Canada have tested more than 2.25 million people as of July 17 and 62,237 – or 62 percent – of infected individuals have recovered.
The second phase will see offices, in-store retail, outdoor dining, hair salons, and barbershops reopen.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Eighteen volunteers received trial vaccine against COVID-19 in the Sechenov University, where coronavirus vaccines are being tested, another 20 people will be vaccinated next week, the Russian Health Ministry said on Thursday.
"The Russian Health Ministry's Sechenov University began human trials of a vaccine against coronavirus infection, with 38 volunteers participating in it, 18 of which today received an injection of the medicine. The remaining 20 people are scheduled to be vaccinated next week", the ministry said.
Volunteers will be in the hospital for 28 days under close supervision of doctors and clinical research specialists, it said.
"Among the participants of the trials are men and women aged from 18 to 65: students, employees of various organisations, visitors from different cities of Russia", the ministry said.
Denmark will allow travel to and from low-risk European countries starting June 27, Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said Thursday.
"Denmark is in a much better place than we dared to hope a while ago. Therefore, we can now relax travel guidelines and reopen to the most of Europe," he was quoted as saying in a statement.
A country must have fewer than 20 new infections with the coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants per week to be considered low-risk. That status can change if cases rise to 30.
A full list of "open" and "quarantined" countries will be published next week, but the Foreign Ministry said the majority of EU and Schengen countries as well as the United Kingdom will be cleared for travel, while Portugal and Sweden will not.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Oman has increased by 739, a downward trend compared to the previous day, to a total of 26,818, the Health Ministry announced on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the daily increase was 810 cases.
According to the official statistics, 437 of the new cases are among non-Omanis.
At the same time, the death toll has increased by three to 119 and the recoveries have increased by 1,467 to a total of 13,264.
The Turkish authorities are to impose a partial curfew over the upcoming two weekends to halt the spread of COVID-19 amid the holding of school entrance exams, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday.
The country's eighth-graders will take their high school exams on Saturday, while university applicants will take theirs the following weekend.
"As high school and university entrance exams are to be held, the President [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] ordered that the weekends be spared for the youth," Koca said, as quoted by Turkish Daily Sabah newspaper.
The initiative emerges as Turkey is facing a steady uptick in new coronavirus disease cases after having lifted the lockdown for seniors and minors earlier in the month.
Turkey has confirmed a total of 182,727 cases, with the death toll standing at 4,861.
Some 1.5 million more Americans filed for first-time unemployment claims last week, the Labor Department said on Thursday, bringing the total number of weekly claims filed since the start from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to nearly 46 million.
“In the week ending June 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 1,508,000,” the department said in a news release. Last week’s filings amounted to 1, 542,000 and came on top of previous filings of nearly 45 million over 11 weeks.
"The leaders discussed the coronavirus pandemic and agreed on the need for an independent investigation through the World Health Organization into the origins of the outbreak," Johnson's office said.
Iran saw 87 new coronavirus deaths in the past day, down by almost a quarter from the day before, Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said Thursday.
Iran recorded 120 deaths on Wednesday. The daily death toll bounced back to triple digits over the weekend for the first time since mid-April.
The country has confirmed 197,647 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, including 156,991 recoveries and 9,272 deaths.
Iran began easing restrictions on public life in late April after seeing the infection rate fall. It has since reported spikes in cases, with President Hassan Rouhani warning of another lockdown if social distancing rules are not followed.
The Afghan Ministry of Public Health registered on Thursday the highest daily rate of 42 deaths, as well as 658 new positive cases, the Tolo News broadcaster reported.
The death toll in the country has risen to 546 and the cumulative count of confirmed cases to 27,532. A total of 7,660 patients have recovered, according to the ministry.
The 658 positive results came from 1,301 conducted tests over the past 24 hours, the media outlet stated.
The majority of the new cases were reported in the cities of Kabul and Bamyan, which reported 415 and 62 new positive tests, respectively.
Afghanistan has so far conducted 61,599 tests for coronavirus and registered a total of 19,321 active cases.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said that talks are underway to ease travel restrictions, which were enforced to curb the spread of COVID-19, for arrivals from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Vietnam, national media reported on Thursday.
According to the Kyodo News agency, Abe told a meeting of the government’s task force on COVID-19 that arrivals will be allowed into the country providing that they test negative for the disease, submit an itinerary of where they intend to visit, and also use a smartphone application that will download the user’s GPS data.
“We will continue with border measures to prevent imported cases of the novel coronavirus,” Abe said at the meeting, as quoted by the agency.
At the same time, Abe said that the gradual resumption of international travel was vital to kickstart the country’s economic recovery, the agency stated.
The Japanese government began to enforce travel restrictions in March to prevent an influx of imported coronavirus disease cases. Curbs remain in force for arrivals from more than 100 countries, the agency stated.
The number of COVID-19 cases among the employees of the Tonnies meat processing plant in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has reached 657, media reported on Thursday.
Previous reports said about at least 400 employees had been infected.
According to Westfalen Blatt, by Wednesday evening the results of 983 COVID-19 tests among the plant's employees were received, including 657 that came back positive. The plant is currently closed and the authorities are reportedly planning to keep shut down for 10-14 days.
On Wednesday, the media reported that 7,000 people were quarantined due to the outbreak. All schools and kindergartens in the area were closed as a precaution.
Syria has confirmed a further nine cases of the coronavirus, bringing the total number of those infected to 187, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.
The new infections have been detected in individuals who contacted a 70-year-old woman who died from the disease on Wednesday, the ministry said.
The death toll has remained seven and the tally of recoveries has reached 78, according to the ministry.
The authorities call on the country’s residents to strictly adhere to the precautionary measures to ensure public health and safety.
Around 11 percent of people living in Russia have been tested for COVID-19, which means that statistics related to positive cases and fatalities is realistic, the World Health Organization (WHO)'s spokeswoman in Russia, Melita Vujnovic, said on Thursday.
"Russia has significantly increased COVID-19 testing, so there is really a good understanding of the statistics related to those infected, and a more realistic picture of the number of fatalities and the COVID mortality rate. We have said many times this can change. As of now, ... around 11 percent of Russia's population have been tested, so the picture is realistic," Vujnovic said at a virtual WHO briefing, commenting on Western media claims about Russia's misreporting of coronavirus fatalities.
Russia has repeatedly refuted any manipulation of official statistics, stressing that all the data is provided transparently. Back in mid-May, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that the country had one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world thanks to the comprehensive measures implemented.
The county has confirmed 561,0914 COVID-19 cases and 7,660 fatalities since the beginning of the outbreak.
World Health Organization's (WHO) Regional European Director Hans Kluge believes that the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic may take place in the fall.
"We expect that in those countries, where cases are going down, this hopefully will remain like this in the summer, but it's possible that when the autumn starts and we have also the seasonal influenza — there is a possibility of seasonality effect on the virus, but we are not sure yet — then we will see a second wave," Kluge told a virtual briefing.
On Wednesday, the WHO released a report estimating that the overall number of coronavirus cases globally stood at 8,061,550, with 440,290 people having died from the disease.
Americas continue to lead the count with some 3.9 million cases, followed by Europe with 2.45 million.
The number of European countries recording significant increases in COVID-19 cases almost tripled over the past month, from six to 21, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said on Thursday.
"Last month, the number of European countries where the total number of infections has increased significantly, almost tripled — from six to 21 countries," Kluge told a virtual briefing.
According to the WHO official, cases are growing in Northern Macedonia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Israel.
"In several countries, reopening of schools after lockdowns has led to local spikes in the number of cases, which means that we need to maintain the duration [of public health measures] and ease restrictions with caution. Again, the risk remains high in all countries," Kluge added.
The WHO has repeatedly warned against lifting COVID-19 restrictions prematurely.
Russia has registered 7,790 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours (7,843 yesterday), pushing the total count to 561,091, the national coronavirus response center said on Thursday.
"Over the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 7,790 COVID-19 cases in 83 regions, of which 2,450 (31.5 percent) have been detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the response center said in a statement.
Russia has so far recorded 561,091 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions (+1.4 percent), the center added.
Of all the new cases, 1,065 have been registered in Moscow, 680 in the Moscow region and 243 in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (compared to yesterday's 1,065, 680 and 237, respectively).
The country's COVID-19 death toll has grown by 182 (194 yesterday) to 7,660.
As many as 9,621 COVID-19 patients have recovered across the country (10,036 yesterday), bringing the total number of cured people to 313,963.
Over 15.9 million tests to detect COVID-19 have been conducted in the country since the beginning of the outbreak, and 309,000 suspected virus carriers across Russia remain under medical monitoring, Russian public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said.
Former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has tested positive for COVID-19, his press secretary said on Thursday.
"The first president of Kazakhstan is currently self-isolating. Unfortunately, the yelbasy's [leader of the nation's] last test for the coronavirus infection showed he was positive. There is no reason to worry. Nursultan Nazarbayev continues working remotely," Aidos Ukibay wrote on Twitter.
Beijing authorities have no intention to put the city under a total lockdown due to the new coronavirus outbreak, following the scenario of Wuhan, which was cut off from the rest of the world for 76 days, the deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said on Thursday.
A new COVID-19 cluster was recently found in the Chinese capital. The virus was detected on a chopping board for imported salmon at Xinfadi, a large wholesale food market. As dozens of people linked to the market tested positive for COVID-19, Xinfadi was temporarily closed. The district where the market is located was put in an emergency mode.
"Beijing will continue tightening control over exit, in order to prevent the epidemic from spreading outside the city, but this does not mean that the city will be closed," Pan Xuhong said.
According to the official, only several categories of people facing high epidemiological risk are banned from leaving Beijing: COVID-19 positive individuals, suspected and asymptomatic virus carriers, those who have been in contact with infected people, and people who have high temperature or other symptoms of the disease.
Most of those who are not allowed to leave Beijing either have attended the Xinfadi market in the period after May 30 (these are chiefly market staffers and those who have been in contact with them) or live in high- or medium-risk districts, Pan specified.
"Being guided by the principle of responsibility toward other provinces and cities, we call on all the other people staying in Beijing to avoid leaving the city unless necessary," the official added.
In the past 24 hours, Beijing has confirmed 21 new COVID-19 cases, detecting three asymptomatic carriers. All the cases are linked to Xinfadi. As many as 158 COVID-19 patients are now undergoing treatment in Beijing's hospitals, and 15 asymptomatic carries are under medical monitoring.
The total count of the confirmed coronavirus cases in Sudan has reached 8,020 after a further 280 people tested positive for COVID-19 in a slight decrease from the 305 cases reported the previous day, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.
The country’s health authorities have recorded 10 more coronavirus-related fatalities, taking the death toll to 487 since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the ministry said.
Another 146 patients have fully recovered from the infection, which brings the tally of recoveries to 2,966, according to the ministry.
The ministry added that the majority of COVID-19 patients — 6,138 — have been registered in the province of Khartoum, including the capital city.
Montenegro has registered seven new cases of COVID-19 two weeks after the country declared it was free from the infection, the Institute of Public Health of Montenegro said on Thursday.
On 2 June, the national council on infectious diseases officially declared that the epidemic of COVID-19 in Montenegro was over. On 25 May, President Milo Dukanovic said that Montenegro had successfully defeated the COVID-19 outbreak and the government opened borders for tourists from a range of countries. The opposition, on its part, expressed doubt about the reliability of the epidemiological data provided by the authorities.
"Over the past 24 hours until 09:00 p.m. [19:00 GMT on Wednesday], the laboratory conducted 200 tests for coronavirus, including 193 negative and 7 positive. Four patients were in contact with a previously identified patient, the source of infection among three others is being clarified," the institute said on Twitter.
It is noted that four patients are residents of Podgorica, while three others are from the cities of Cetinje, Rozaje and Berane.
The number of active COVID-19 cases in Montenegro currently stands at nine and a total of 333 cases of the infection were registered in the country since the beginning of the outbreak. Ten patients died from the disease.
The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Libya has increased by 16 to 500, according to the National Center for Disease Control.
"The National Center for Disease Control recorded 16 positive cases of the new coronavirus on Wednesday, June 17," the center said.
It said the coronavirus death toll stood at 10, and 78 people had recovered from the disease.
Germany has confirmed 580 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, with the total count reaching 187,764, the Robert Koch Institute said on Thursday.
The death toll has grown by 26 to 8,856 people within the same period of time.
A day earlier, the country confirmed 345 new cases and 30 fatalities.
The death toll from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mexico has risen by 770 - up from 730 the day before - over the past 24 hours to 19,080, the Health Ministry's director of epidemiology, Jose Luis Alomia, said during a press conference broadcast on Twitter.
Alomia said the case tally had risen by 4,930 - up from 4,599 on Tuesday - to 159,793.
