The United States still has the highest case count in the world; 5,777,710 have been infected there, including 178,486 fatalities and 2,053,6994 recoveries, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Earlier, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that Spain will use the army to track contacts of coronavirus patients in an effort to stem the rise in infections.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Jordanian authorities have imposed a curfew for 24 hours in two provinces over the growing number of confirmed coronavirus cases there, the Petra news agency reported citing Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Adaileh.
The official said on late Wednesday that the curfew would be introduced in the provinces of Amman and Zarqa from 11:00 p.m. (20:00 GMT) on Thursday to 11:00 p.m. on Friday.
According to Adaileh, the 24-hour curfew in the two provinces is aimed at minimizing inter-human contacts and providing epidemiologists with an opportunity to focus on potential COVID-19 cases.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, more than 24 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 822,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Jordan has confirmed 1,756 coronavirus cases so far, with 15 fatalities and 1,355 recoveries.
BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) – Argentina has confirmed 10,550 new cases of the coronavirus across the country within the past 24 hours, with the total number of people infected with COVID-19 having reached 370,188, the national Ministry of Health said.
A day earlier, Argentina recorded 8,771 new COVID-19 cases and 198 fatalities.
"Today, 10,550 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, bringing the total number of [COVID-19] positive tests in the country to 370,188," the ministry said in a daily bulletin on late Wedensday.
The death toll from the coronavirus has risen by 276 to 7,839 people within the same period of time.
LONDON (Sputnik) – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom has increased by 1,048 to 328,846 within the past 24 hours, the Department of Health and Social Care said on late Wednesday.
According to the latest official figures, the country's death toll climbed to 41,465, after another 16 people had died of the disease.
A day earlier, the country recorded 1,184 new COVID-19 cases and 16 fatalities.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, more than 24 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 822,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil has increased by 47,161 to 3,717,156 within the past 24 hours, the national Ministry of Health said on late Wednesday.
The death toll has risen by 1,085 to 117,665 people within the same period of time.
A day earlier, Brazil reported 47,134 new cases of the coronavirus disease and 1,271 new fatalities.
Brazil comes second in terms of coronavirus cases after the United States, which has recorded more than 5.8 million COVID-19 patients.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, more than 24 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 821,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus diseases worldwide has surpassed 24 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The university said the global coronavirus case tally stood at 24,007,049, with 821,933 deaths.
A total of 15,634,412 people have recovered from COVID-19, it said.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - More than 1,000 people have died of COVID-19 in US prisons since the pandemic began, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced on Wednesday.
"The death toll from COVID-19 in prisons and jails around the country reached 1,000 people today," the ACLU said in a Twitter message. "The nation’s 10 largest clusters of COVID-19 are in jails and prisons."
The death toll was a consequence of the US system of justice and mass incarceration which has currently more than two million people behind bars, the ACLU said.
"This tragic milestone is the culmination of a mass incarceration machine that has targeted and torn apart communities - disproportionately Black and Brown ones - for decades," the organization said.
The US prison system was part of a culture that tolerated neglect for the health and lives of incarcerated people, their families, and staff and was now responsible for taking 1,000 lives recklessly and unnecessarily during a pandemic, the ACLU stated.
The US Justice Department has ordered several Democratically-controlled states to provide it with COVID-19 data to help it determine if it is necessary to begin civil rights investigations into the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte have agreed to intensify the bilateral cooperation between their states for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, including with regard to vaccines, the Kremlin said in a press release on Wednesday.
The call was initiated by Italy, according to the Kremlin.
"As part of the discussion of topical issues pertaining to the Russian-Italian relations, an agreement was reached to activate the cooperation for countering the spread of the coronavirus, including the work on vaccines for the prevention of this disease," the press release read.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - It is possible that people might start to contract the coronavirus repeatedly, but it does not mean that the vaccine will not work, Maria Van Kerkhove, the COVID-19 technical lead at the World Health Organization (WHO), said on Friday.
"It doesn't change what we are doing for the vaccines. That's the other question - people think it means a vaccine won't work. It's not what this means. We're still developing vaccines, and there's incredible progress being made on this," Van Kerkhove told a virtual briefing. "Yes, it's possible that we could start to see reinfection but we have the tools in place that can prevent people from getting infected."
LONDON (Sputnik) - Another 16 people have died in the United Kingdom within 28 days of their first laboratory-confirmed positive test for the novel coronavirus, taking the country´s death toll to 41,465, health authorities announced on Wednesday.
Wednesday´s official figures, which were released by Public Health England because the government COVID-19 dashboard is experiencing technical problems since Tuesday, also show that the number of positive cases rose by 1,048 over the last 24 hours to 328,846.
According to the Johns Hopkins University´s latest COVID-19 dashboard, the United Kingdom ranks fifth among the world´s most affected countries by the number of coronavirus-related deaths, sitting behind the US, where 178,819 fatalities have been recorded, Brazil (116,580), Mexico (61,450) and India (59,449).
China's BGI Genomics biotechnology company on Wednesday pushed back against an accusation of manufacturing faulty COVID-19 testing kits that allegedly produce many false positive, citing differences in the sensitivity standards of testing kits in various countries.
"It is important to understand that the rates of positive detection from COVID-19 testing kits can be linked to the different sensitivity standards adopted by different countries and regions around the world ... If nucleic acid test results from low-sensitivity reagents are used as the standard, test results from high-sensitivity reagents will then be regarded as 'false-positive'; Similarly, if nucleic acid test results from high-sensitivity reagents are used as the standard, test results from low-sensitivity reagents will be regarded as 'false-negative,'" the company said in a statement, adding that its tests are more on the sensitive side.
BGI Genomics supplies its test kit to many countries throughout the world, including the United States, Japan, Australia and the countries of the European Union.
The UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory has suggested that a product commonly found in insect repellent could kill the coronavirus strain that causes COVID-19, the Sky News broadcaster reported on Wednesday.
The UK Defence Ministry's lab started the study on Citriodiol in May after the media revealed that Mosi-Guard, an insect repellent containing the substance, had already been distributed among the country’s servicemen.
According to the media outlet, Citriodiol has already been found to have killed other types of coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the broadcaster added that the regular mosquito spray would not be efficient on its own and would need to be used as an extra layer of protection, along with face masks and other measures.
Citriodiol was used during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003.
Egypt and China intend to sign a cooperation agreement on the production of a vaccine for protection against COVID-19 in September, Egyptian Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mugahed said on Wednesday.
According to Egypt’s Al Ahram news outlet, this initiative was announced by Health Minister Hala Zayed in the wake of a meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Cairo Liao Liqiang. At the end of July, Egypt also claimed that the country would become the African hub to manufacture the Chinese vaccine if one is developed by Beijing.
"The Egyptian and Chinese sides are expected to sign in September a cooperation agreement on the production of anti-coronavirus vaccines," Mugahed said.
In early July, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel Ghaffar stated that the scientists of the North African country conducted preclinical studies of at least four COVID-19 vaccine candidates and worked to develop three medications to treat the disease.
On Saturday, the Egyptian Health Ministry registered less than 100 cases of COVID-19 for the first time in more than four months.
According to Mohammed Tag El-Deen, the Egyptian president's adviser for health affairs, an increase of COVID-19 infections is anticipated to start from October-December in connection with the expected growth of the number of patients with the seasonal flu.
A surge of new COVID-19 cases in recent weeks has worsened France's epidemiological situation, but the authorities are continuing to monitor the developments of the virus to keep it under control and put the government’s economic recovery strategy in effect, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Wednesday on the France Inter broadcaster.
France has seen new clusters of the coronavirus break out over the last few weeks and a rise in the daily count of new infections, which have fluctuated over 1,000 cases since the end of July and caused the authorities to reimpose some sanitary measures. The latest record-high of new COVID-19 cases was 4,897 on 23 August, according to France’s health authorities.
"We see that there is a resumption of the epidemic. There is nothing to panic about, but we have gone from 1,000 to 3,000 cases per day diagnosed. We are managing this situation so that we can move on to the next phase, the revival [of the economy]," Castex said.
A state plan worth 100 billion-euro ($118 billion) to revive the economy, which was heavily damaged by the pandemic, is due to be unveiled on 3 September, Castex said. Initially, it was scheduled to be presented on August 25 but was then postponed in the wake of the preparations for the new school term.
The prime minister added that the state would allocate 2 billion euros for the culture and arts sector as part of the economic revival package.
As of Wednesday, France has reported nearly 286,000 COVID-19 infections and over 30,000 related fatalities.
The University of Cambridge announced on Wednesday that it could start the clinical trial phase of its possible COVID-19 vaccine in late fall or early next year due to the UK government's allocation of £1.9 million ($2.5 million) to the scientific project.
"A Cambridge-developed vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 could begin clinical trials in the UK in late autumn or early next year, thanks to a £1.9million award from the UK government," the university said in a statement.
The press release added that if successful, the Cambridge vaccine candidate, which uses synthetic DNA and banks of genetic sequences of all known coronaviruses, should be safe for widespread use and can be manufactured and distributed at a low cost.
"Ultimately we aim to make a vaccine that will not only protect from SARS-CoV-2, but also other related coronaviruses that may spill over from animals to humans," Jonathan Heeney, head of the Laboratory of Viral Zoonotics at the University of Cambridge, said, as quoted in the statement.
According to Cambridge University, the proposed vaccine does not need to be stored in a cold environment, which would make transport and storage easier, particularly in developing countries, and can be delivered pain-free, via a simple jet of air.
Oxford University and the Imperial College London are also working on the development of a COVID-19 vaccine in the United Kingdom.
Seven Moscow hospitals will join the post-registration trials of the first Russian coronavirus vaccine, according to the clinical trial register published by the Health Ministry.
The ministry approved the request for trials on Tuesday.
Kazakh state pharmaceutical distributor SK-Pharmacy has signed an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDFI) on the procurement of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine once it has crossed all testing hurdles, Kazakhstan's government said on Wednesday.
"An agreement of understanding was signed between the Russian Direct Investment Fund and SK-Pharmacy on the allocation of a guaranteed volume of the Sputnik V vaccine after passing all stages of testing," the government statement read.
The agreement earmarks a preset volume of the vaccine to be produced by Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute specifically for the Central Asian nation.
The statement said that the government would provide at-risk Kazakhis with immunization free of charge.
The agreement was signed with the participation of Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko and his Kazakh counterpart, Alexey Tsoy, who headed a governmental delegation on a working visit to Moscow.
The two sides also signed a protocol on further cooperation between the health ministries, the statement said.
Russia registered 4,676 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total to 970,865, the response centre said Wednesday.
Of the latest cases, 26.8 percent o the infected showed no symptoms.
Moscow recorded 640 cases, St. Petersburg 181, the Moscow region 143.
Russia recorded 115 deaths in the last 24 hours, which brings the cumulative total to 16,683, and 6,403 recoveries, which brings the cumulative total to 786,150.
Kazakhstan has registered, over the past 24 hours, 173 cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), bringing the total number of cases to 105,075, an interdepartmental commission said.
The country's death toll from COVID-19 has risen by 10 to 1,544. More than 93,000 people have recovered.
"A total of 173 new cases of coronavirus infection have been registered, of whom 98 are symptomatic carriers, 75 asymptomatic carriers," the commission said in its Telegram channel.
The day before, the number of cases increased by 184 and the death count by 11.
