Amid the news of the coronavirus pandemic surpassing a new threshold, China - the country where the virus was first detected, has reported just nine new cases on the mainland with authorities saying that all of them were imported.
The country's capital, Beijing, has reported no new confirmed domestically-transmitted COVID-19 cases for three consecutive days.
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Germany has confirmed 395 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, with the total count reaching 198,178, the Robert Koch Institute said on Friday.
The death toll has grown by six to 9,054 people within the same period of time. Some 184,000 people have recovered since the start of the outbreak.
A day earlier, the country confirmed 442 new cases and 12 fatalities.
MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – The number of people, who have died of COVID-19 in Mexico, has risen by 730 to 33,526 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 7,280 to 282,283 within the same period of time.
A day earlier, the Latin American nation recorded 6,995 new cases of the coronavirus, with 782 fatalities.
MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – President of the Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly Diosdado Cabello said that he had tested positive for the coronavirus disease.
"Dear comrades, I must tell you that my COVID-19 test turned out to be positive, after which I was placed in isolation and am receiving treatment", Cabello wrote on his Twitter page on late Thursday
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro wished soon recovery to Cabello.
"Diosdado is receiving treatment now, having rest and feeling normal", Maduro said.
The president added that Governor of the Zulia State Omar Prieto had also been diagnosed with the coronavirus disease.
EL PASO (Sputnik) - The state of Texas has hit a single-day record of 105 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) deaths, the Texas Department of State Health Services revealed in recent data.
Data released on Thursday showed Texas reported 105 new COVID-19 deaths, which is the first time it has reached triple-digit numbers.
On Wednesday, the state reported 98 new COVID-19 deaths.
The state has had a continued pattern of reaching new record numbers in COVID-related deaths, new cases and hospitalizations since last month.
Governor Greg Abbott allowed Texas to be one of the first US states to reopen its economy amid the pandemic when he let stay-at-home orders expire 1 May.
Texas has reported a total of 230,346 COVID-19 cases and 2,918 deaths caused by the disease as of Thursday evening, according to the state health department.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil has increased by 42,619 to 1,755,779 within the past 24 hours, the national Ministry of Health said on late Thursday.
The death toll has risen by 1,220 to 69,184 people within the same period of time.
A day earlier, Brazil reported about 44,571 new cases of the coronavirus disease and 1,223 new fatalities.
Brazil comes second on a global tally of coronavirus cases after the United States, which has recorded over 3.1 million COVID-19 patients.
CAIRO (Sputnik) - The Moroccan government has decided to extend the state of emergency in the country over the coronavirus pandemic for another month until 10 August, government spokesman Said Amzazi said on Thursday.
"The government approved a bill ... on the extension of the state of emergency throughout the kingdom to fight the coronavirus until 18:00 pm [local time, 17:00 GMT] on 10 August 2020", Amzazi said, as quoted by the country's MAP news agency.
At the same time, the authorities have decided to partially resume maritime and air traffic starting from 14 July. To board a flight, citizens must provide the results of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis, which was carried out at least 48 hours ago, as well as undergo a serological test for the coronavirus.
According to the kingdom's Health Ministry, Morocco has confirmed more than 15,000 cases of the coronavirus so far, including 242 fatalities and about 11,400 recoveries.
Staring 25 June, as part of the gradual easing of coronavirus-related restrictions, the authorities have allowed cafes and restaurants, as well as shopping centres, to resume operations. The country also resumed road and rail links between cities and domestic flights. At the same time, museums, theatres, cinemas and public swimming pools are still closed.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Moscow has recorded 28 COVID-19-related fatalities over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 4,087, the Russian capital's response centre said on Thursday.
"Twenty-eight patients died in Moscow, all of them had confirmed pneumonia and all of them had tested positive for the coronavirus infection", the response centre said in a statement.
The centre reported 32 fatalities on Wednesday.
RIO DE JANEIRO (Sputnik) - Rio de Janeiro Mayor Marcelo Crivella said on Thursday that the city's beaches will be closed until a vaccine against the coronavirus is developed.
It is currently forbidden to lie on the beaches, sunbathe or relax with other people. Initially, beaches were set to open on Friday, but the authorities decided to extend the restriction.
"The tendency is to keep the ban until we get the vaccine", Crivella said, as quoted by the country's O Dia newspaper.
According to the mayor, the situation will deteriorate if the authorities open the city's beaches, as people will immediately begin to go there on weekends, and then return home en masse, using public transport and not wearing masks.
The official also said that starting this weekend, everyone who does not comply with the rules will be fined 107 reais ($20). It is currently allowed to engage in certain sports on the beaches, such as swimming, surfing and running. Swimmers take advantage of this and lie on the sand, which will be punished with a fine starting this weekend.
ROME (Sputnik) - Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza signed a temporary ban on entry from 13 countries with a high spread of COVID-19, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.
According to the ministry, a decree signed earlier in the day prohibits entry and transit of those who visited or travelled through Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, North Macedonia, Moldova, Oman, Panama, Peru, Kuwait and the Dominican Republic in the previous 14 days.
"The pandemic is in its most acute phase across the world," the minister said in a statement.
Italy has confirmed a total of 242,363 cases, with a death toll of 34,926.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Israel rose by 1,650 in the past 24 hours and now stands at 34,825, the country's health ministry said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - There are currently 17 promising vaccines being studied in Russian facilities, while no more than three or four will make it to the mass production stage, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said in a televised interview aired Thursday.
"Those [vaccines] that have already shown promise today are 17 vaccine candidates. Work on them is being carried out in more depth. I think that, of course, a little less will come to industrial production, but we expect that at least three or four vaccines will be available in Russia eventually," Murashko said.
The health minister added that there are currently two sites in the country where the clinical trials are being carried out and that the volunteers are reacting well to the trial vaccines.
Russian scientists from leading institutions, such as the Vektor State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, are part of the worldwide race to develop a vaccine against SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The World Health Organization (WHO) updated on Thursday its data on COVID-19 transmission, saying it does not rule out aerosol transmission in indoor settings, such as offices or restaurants, and urging more studies.
Earlier this week, over 200 scientists called on the WHO to acknowledge that the virus could be spread in the air, citing relevant studies and noting that this could call for some new measures. The WHO, which previously said that airborne transmission was only possible during high-risk medical procedures, later said it was aware of the scientists' concerns and was reviewing the report with technical experts.
"There have been reported outbreaks of COVID-19 in some closed settings, such as restaurants, nightclubs, places of worship or places of work where people may be shouting, talking, or singing. In these outbreaks, aerosol transmission, particularly in these indoor locations where there are crowded and inadequately ventilated spaces where infected persons spend long periods of time with others, cannot be ruled out. More studies are urgently needed to investigate such instances and assess their significance for transmission of COVID-19," the WHO said at a scientific briefing on COVID-19 transmission.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Moderna Therapeutics’ novel coronavirus vaccine will likely be subjected to advanced clinical trials by the end of July and a working vaccine could be ready by end of 2020 or next year, US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci said on Thursday.
"The Moderna [vaccine] that we helped develop here at the NIAID will very likely be going into advanced phase three clinical trials by the end of July, and then there are other candidates equally as promising in many respects that will be coming in a little bit later," Fauci told a live-streamed health event. "We hope that by the end of this calendar year and by the beginning of 2021, we will have a vaccine that will be able to begin to deploy to people who need it."
Fauci clarified that vaccine providers will have to prioritize and have vaccine doses ready for the most vulnerable and not for the entire population.
The Trump administration is developing up to five vaccine candidates under an acceleration program dubbed Operation Warp Speed to develop before the end of 2020 safe and effective immunization for the novel coronavirus and make as many as 300 million doses by early 2021.
Fauci said favorable data in Phase 1 of the trials offers hope the producers will be able to induce a response to predict whether the vaccine would be protective.
"As you well know, with any vaccine development program, you never can guarantee success of safety and efficacy, but the early signs are proving favorable," Fauci said.
On Wednesday, Massachusetts-based Moderna Therapeutics appointed the Madrid-based Laboratorios Farmaceuticos Rovi to handle commercial fill-finish manufacturing for a novel coronavirus vaccine for use outside of the United States.
The Balearic Islands will make it compulsory to wear a face mask in public at all times from Monday, regional leader Francina Armengol said, as quoted by Reuters.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia and Indonesia will work together to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus, and the memorandum of cooperation between the ministries of health of the two countries is being prepared, Russia's trade representative in Indonesia, Sergei Rossomakhov, said on Thursday.
"We [are ready] to cooperate in the joint development of a vaccine against COVID-19 ... Now, a memorandum of cooperation between the ministries of health of the two countries is being actively prepared," Rossomakhov said during a webinar organized by the Russian Trade Office in Indonesia.
The trade representative called on Russian entrepreneurs to switch from simply supplying Indonesia with personal protective equipment to cooperation in the development of medical equipment, including ventilators, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for COVID-19 and vaccines.
According to Rossomakhov, such cooperation will receive a "positive reaction" from Indonesian partners, and joint-produced equipment will be "in high demand."
TEL AVIV (Sputnik) – Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi has been quarantined after being in contact with an officer who had tested positive for COVID-19, the IDF press service said on Thursday.
"The chief of staff, Lieut. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, was a week ago in contact with an officer who received today positive results for COVID-19. In light of this, the chief of staff and other servicemen will be quarantined, according to the instructions of the Health Ministry," the press service wrote on Twitter.
Kochavi will stay in isolation and work, according to his regular schedule whenever possible, according to the service.
The chief of staff feels good and shows no symptoms, the service added, noting that Kochavi will be soon examined by a doctor.
On July 2, Kochavi, along with President Reuven Rivlin, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Border Police (Magav) commander Yaakov "Kobi" Shabtai, who tested positive for COVID-19 two days after, reportedly attended a memorial event at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl.
On Wednesday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz also decided to self-isolate following contact with a COVID-19 patient. The minister said that he would continue to work as always, but remotely.
Amid a spike in new COVID-19 cases over the past week, the country’s government has decided to again close event venues, clubs, bars and gyms. Restaurants are required to limit the number of visitors over the outbreak.
As of today, the total COVID-10 toll in Israel has reached 33,947 confirmed cases, including 346 deaths.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Hunger created by the measures imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus threatens to add 12,000 victims to the daily death toll in nations that have suffered from food crises prior the pandemic, the international aid group Oxfam said in a press release on Thursday.
"COVID-19 is the last straw for millions of people already struggling with the impacts of conflict, climate change, inequality and a broken food system that has impoverished millions of food producers and workers," Oxfam Interim Executive Director Chema Vera said in the release.
Oxfam has examined the world’s ten worst hunger hotspots, including Venezuela, South Sudan and Yemen, where the food crisis is getting worse as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the release said.
The aid organization has also highlighted the emerging epicenters of hunger - middle income countries such as India, South Africa, and Brazil - where millions of people who were barely managing have tipped over the edge by the pandemic, the release added.
Oxfam said it based its prediction of 12,000 additional deaths from pandemic-related hunger on a World Food Program prediction that crisis level or greater food shortages will hit an additional 121 million people this year.
The estimated daily mortality rate at this level of food insecurity increases to between 0.5 to 1 per 10,000 people or between 6,050 and 12,100 deaths per day, according to the release.
Belarusian Health Ministry on Thursday announced the removal of 12 states from the list of countries to which Minsk applies mandatory quarantine rules, which require all travelers to spend 14 days in self-isolation due to COVID-19.
Since late March, Belarus has been maintaining a list of countries suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, which required all visitors coming from them to self-isolate for two weeks in a place of residence or stay. The list originally contained 169 countries, but over time it has whittled down, although Russia is still on it.
"Another 12 states have been expunged from the list of countries with registered cases of COVID-19," the ministry said in a statement.
According to the ministry, as of Wednesday, those coming from Algeria, Andorra, Vietnam, Cyprus, Cuba, Lebanon, Mauritius, Malaysia, New Zealand, San Marino, Thailand and Tunisia are exempt from the quarantine rules.
Belarus has confirmed a total of 64, 224 confirmed cases, with a death toll of 443.
Some 1.3 million more Americans filed for first-time unemployment claims last week as a new wave of coronavirus infections hit the world’s largest economy, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
“In the week ending July 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 1,314,000,” the department said in a release. Last week’s filings amounted to 1.4 million and came on top of previous filings of nearly 48.5 million over 15 weeks.
The mandatory mask regime on the streets of Moscow will be lifted from July 13, but the requirement for social distance remains, the Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in his blog.
"From July 13, 2020 ... When they are on the streets, citizens are encouraged to use masks, respirators or other respiratory protection equipment. The mandatory mask regime on the streets will be canceled," the statement said.
The mayor specified that it will continue to be necessary to use masks and gloves in public transport, medical facilities, shops and other public places.
"The requirements for maintaining social distance are also preserved," the mayor noted.
Educational facilities, businesses in all forms, amusement parks other places of leisure will be allowed to open from Monday as well.
According to Sobyanin, the epidemiological situation in the Russian capital has improved, with about a quarter of the number of coronavirus patients in hospitals today than at the peak in early May.
The next round of restrictions lifting will take place on August 1.
Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday announced chairs of a panel, which will assess the international response to the coronavirus pandemic.
During the World Health Assembly in May, member states adopted a resolution calling for the independent evaluation.
"I'm proud to announce that former Prime Minister [of New Zealand] Helen Clark and former President [of Liberia] Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and also a Nobel laureate have agreed to serve as co-chairs of the evaluation committee, which we are calling the Independent panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, IPPPR," Tedros told a mission briefing.
According to the WHO chief, the co-chairs have been selected through "a process of broad informal consultation with Member States and world experts." He proposed to develop the terms of reference for the panel in consultation with member states and enable the co-chairs to select other members of the panel, while encouraging member states to make their suggestions.
"I also propose that the panel will have an independent secretariat. As you know, in the past we used to have our internal independent evaluation department that would serve as secretariat in independent evaluations. But as I said, this is a very unique situation, and I propose to have an independent secretary as fully accountable to the two co-chairs and the panel," Tedros added.
The WHO chief proposed monthly mission briefings to update members states on on the progress and interim findings. He also outlined the timeline for other events where the panel's work would be addressed.
"I am proposing to call a special session of the Executive Board in September to discuss progress and to give guidance. And in November, we will resume the World Health Assembly, and the Independent panel will present an interim report. In January, the Executive Board will hold its regular session, where we will further discuss the panel’s work. In May of next year, at the World Health Assembly, the panel will present its substantive report on the health findings," Tedros said.
The WHO chief reiterated the need for honest self-reflection and "breaking from the past and building back better."
"We cannot go back to the way we did things before, my friends. Business as usual has failed us. This cannot be another blue-ribbon panel that issues a report that goes up on the bookshelf. We must come together in a global conversation, to take these hard-won lessons and turn them into action," Tedros stressed.
According to the statistics collected by the Johns Hopkins University, the cumulative coronavirus case count has reached 12 million, with 550,135 deaths.
The global health sector and leaders had known for years that a pandemic was inevitable, but the world was still unprepared for the COVID-19 outbreak, Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.
"For years, many of us warned that catastrophic respiratory pandemic was inevitable. People from the health sector, even outside the health sector, many of our leaders were warned about a catastrophic pandemic. It was not a question of if, but when. But still, despite all the warnings, the world was not ready," Tedros told a briefing for member states.
The UK government's chaotic COVID-19 data collection has led to confusion regarding the real number of infections in the country, although they have served the authorities' purpose of showing rising testing capacity at each daily press conference, the Sky News broadcaster reported, citing sources.
According to insiders, the UK authorities "buffed the system" to assemble its coronavirus testing program, deliberately breaking established practices of collecting data so that no one could say for sure how many people were tested for COVID-19 and how many of them were positive.
"We said: forget the conventions, we're putting [this data] out," a senior government official told the outlet.
Sky News said that officials from Public Health England and the Department of Health and Social Care "hand-cranked" the numbers to get rapid data on the number of tests conducted in the country per day. However, an internal audit later showed that some of those figures did not add up.
The sources said that the statistical issue was faced by UK officials in the early days of the pandemic, noting that one of the ministers had to fill Excel spreadsheets by calling round in an attempt to collect data to use in each daily press conference. The methods of compiling the data were very primitive and often the figures were recorded using pen and paper, as Sky News obtained hand-written tables of testing data for several parts of the country.
Last week, the UK government admitted that there were cases of double-counting in the country's COVID-19 data and revealed that the total number of infections was 30,000 fewer than was stated in the early official statistics. Moreover, the UK said it will no longer publish daily coronavirus testing statistics, saying that many of the issues with data were historic and had already been addressed.
Russia has registered 6,509 coronavirus cases in 24 hours, which brings the cumulative total to 707,301, the coronavirus response center said Thursday.
"In the last 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 6,509 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions, including 1,778 (27.3 percent) without symptoms," the center said.
Moscow has registered 568 cases in 24 hours, which is more than any other region in Russia. However, in terms of increase in new cases, Moscow has been showing the slowest rate in the country for a while now. St. Petersburg registered 292 new cases in the past 24 hours.
Kazakhstan has recorded 1,962 new cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), bringing the overall number of registered cases to 53,021, the interdepartmental commission on coronavirus reported Thursday.
"A total of 1,962 new cases of coronavirus infection were registered, of which 753 were symptomatic carriers, 1,209 were asymptomatic carriers," the commission said in its Telegram channel.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus a pandemic on March 11.
According to the WHO, the global coronavirus death toll has surpassed 539,000 people, with the number of cases worldwide exceeding 11.6 million.
India has confirmed 24,879 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of those infected having surpassed 760,000, the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.
The number of confirmed cases in India currently stands at 767,296. The death toll from the disease has reached 21,129, with 487 new fatalities being recorded over the past day.
India's central state of Maharashtra with confirmed 223,724 cases remains the most affected region. It is followed by the southern state of Tamil Nadu, with 122,350 cases, and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, with 104,864 cases.
A day earlier, India registered 22,700 new coronavirus cases and 482 fatalities.
India comes third in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States and Brazil.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 12 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 548,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
