The number of coronavirus cases is still rising, with over 20.2 million infected and more than 740,000 deaths worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. The US, Brazil, and India top the list of the most affected countries, also showing the highest daily increases globally.
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Germany has confirmed 1,445 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, with the total count reaching 219,964, the Robert Koch Institute said on Thursday.
The death toll has grown by three to 9,211 people within the same period of time. More than 199,500 people have recovered since the start of the outbreak.
A day earlier, the country confirmed 1,226 new coronavirus cases and six fatalities.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, more than 20.5 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 747,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) worldwide has surpassed 20.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
It said the global case tally stood at 20,532,835 at 02:16 GMT Thursday, with 747,845 deaths and 12,743,275 recoveries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus a pandemic on 11 March.
According to the WHO, the global coronavirus death toll has surpassed 737,000 people, with the number of cases worldwide exceeding 20.1 million.
ANKARA (Sputnik) - The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Turkey has increased over the past 24 hours by 1,212 to 244,392, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.
The death toll has risen by 18 to 5,891, Koca said on Twitter.
The day before, he reported 1,183 new coronavirus cases and 15 new deaths.
"Today, 1,212 new cases of COVID-19 were registered, the overall number of those infected totals 244,392. The death toll rose by 18 to 5,891. The number of recoveries increased by 934 patients today to 227,089," Koca said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus a pandemic on 11 March.
According to the WHO, the global coronavirus death toll has surpassed 737,000 people, with the number of cases worldwide exceeding 20.1 million.
MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – The number of people, who have died of COVID-19 in Mexico, has risen by 737 to 54,666 within the past 24 hours, Jose Luis Alomia, the director of epidemiology at the Health Ministry, said.
He also said on late Wednesday that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases had increased by 5,858 to 498,380 within the same period of time.
A day earlier, the Latin American nation recorded 6,686 new cases of the coronavirus, with 926 fatalities.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, more than 20.4 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 745,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) – Argentina has confirmed 7,663 new cases of the coronavirus across the country within the past 24 hours marking the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak, with the total number of people infected with COVID-19 having reached 268,574, the national Ministry of Health said.
A day earlier, Argentina recorded 7,043 new COVID-19 cases and 304 fatalities.
"Today, 7,663 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, bringing the total number of [COVID-19] positive tests in the country to 268,574," the ministry said in a daily bulletin on late Thursday.
The death toll has increased by 209 to 5,213 people within the same period of time.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, more than 20.4 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 745,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
ROME (Sputnik) - Italy is introducing compulsory tests for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) for arrivals from Croatia, Greece, Malta and Spain, Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza said.
The Italian authorities' decision was made amid an increase in the number of new cases.
Most of the new cases are found in young people, many of whom have just returned from their vacation abroad, or representatives of compactly living diasporas.
Throughout almost entire July, the number of new COVID-19 cases in Italy was within 300 cases per day, which corresponded to the level of the initial period of the epidemic (late February - early March). Recently, however, the number of those infected has begun to rise again. On some days in August, the number of such cases exceeded 400, and on 7 August even reached 552.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to resume negotiations on a COVID-19 relief package until the Trump administration raises its top-line offer from $1 trillion to $2 trillion, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in press release.
"Earlier today, Speaker Pelosi and I spoke by phone," Mnuchin said on Wednesday. "She made clear that she was unwilling to meet to continue negotiations unless we agreed in advance to her proposal, costing at least $2 trillion."
Pelosi issued a joint statement with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accusing the administration of failing to grasp the magnitude of hardships faced by American families.
"Democrats have compromised. Repeatedly, we have made clear to the administration that we are willing to come down $1 trillion if they will come up $1 trillion," the statement said.
The initial Democratic plan proposed a more than $3 trillion relief package while the Trump administration said it wants the package to be limited to $1 trillion.
The recalcitrance on both sides caused $600 weekly payments to unemployed workers to expire in July, although President Donald Trump is attempting to resume payments at $400 by using an executive order that bypasses Congress.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil has increased by 55,155 to 3,164,785 within the past 24 hours, the national Ministry of Health said on late Wednesday.
The death toll has risen by 1,175 to 104,201 people within the same period of time.
A day earlier, Brazil reported 52,160 new cases of the coronavirus disease and 1,274 new fatalities.
Brazil comes second on a global tally of coronavirus cases after the United States, which has recorded more than 5.1 million COVID-19 patients.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, more than 20.4 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 745,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
MONTEVIDEO (Sputnik) – The parliament of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) wants to hold a meeting with representatives of the Russian government to discuss Russia’s vaccine against the coronavirus, the legislature’s president, Oscar Laborde, told Sputnik.
He stressed that the Mercosur parliament is glad that Russia had registered the first coronavirus vaccine, viewing it as a “window of hope” for Latin America and the whole world.
“We will have a new meeting with the Russian government to see how Latin America will be able to establish closer relations with Moscow … Within the next several days, we will hold a meeting with the Russian government to learn details of this discovery,” Laborde said on late Wednesday.
Earlier in the week, Russia registered the first coronavirus vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya Institute. Russian officials are currently in talks with a number of countries to seal production and distribution agreements.
Mercosur was established in 1991 to encompass Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay into a common market. Venezuela's full membership was suspended in December 2016.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, during which Aliyev congratulated Putin on the registration of the vaccine against coronavirus, the Kremlin press service reported.
The conversation took place at the initiative of the Azerbaijani side.
"Aliyev congratulated Vladimir Putin on the registration of the Russian vaccine against coronavirus infection," the statement said.
Earlier in the week, Russia registered the first coronavirus vaccine against the virus that causes COVID-19, developed by the Gamaleya Institute. Russian officials are currently in talks with a number of countries to seal production and distribution agreements.
The leaders also exchanged views on regional issues in light of recent Azerbaijani-Armenian border clashes. Putin stressed the importance of avoiding any activity that would escalate tensions.
Armed clashes broke out in mid-July on the border between Armenia’s Tavush province and the Azerbaijani region of Tovuz. The confrontation lasted for several days, and at least 12 Azerbaijani military personnel were killed in the clashes, Baku said. Several Armenian troops were also killed as tensions flared.
Another 77 people have died in the UK after testing positive for COVID-19, bringing the cumulative death toll to 46,706, the Department of Health and Social Care reported on Wednesday.
The official report, which was not released on Tuesday by the government due to technical issues, added that 1,009 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus were detected over the last 24 hours, the third time in a week the number of infections have gone above 1,000 since June 26.
Overall, a total of 313,798 cases have been confirmed in the UK since the pandemic began.
According to the Department of Health and Social Care, the actual cause of death may not be COVID-19 in all cases, but its report only includes people who died after testing positive for the disease.
The Office for National Statistics, which includes all fatalities where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate as a probable cause, said on Tuesday that death toll in UK has passed 56,800.
"At its meeting on 12 August, the Federal Council took the decision to re-allow events for more than 1000 people from 1 October. Strict protective measures will apply and the events will have to be authorised by the cantons, taking into account the local epidemiological situation and their contact tracing capacity", the government said in a press release.
Events of more than 1,000 people have been banned in Switzerland since 28 February due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. The measure had been due to expire at the end of August, but the latest announcement sees the ban extended for one additional month.
Additionally, the Swiss government announced that protective facial coverings must be worn on all scheduled and charter flights leaving or arriving in the country from 15 August. Masks have already been compulsory on public transport since 6 July.
Since the start of the pandemic, 37,169 positive tests for COVID-19 have been registered in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, resulting in 1,714 deaths. The Federal Office of Public Health on Wednesday reported that 274 new cases were confirmed over the preceding 24 hours.
BEIJING (Sputnik) - Traces of COVID-19 have been found on the outer packaging of frozen shrimp bought from Ecuador by a restaurant in eastern China's Anhui Province, official media reported on Wednesday.
According to China Central Television (CCTV), authorities in the Jinghu district in Anhui's Wuhu on Monday carried out a routine inspection to test food service workers and frozen foods for COVID-19. As a result of the check, samples of imported shrimp showed traces of the coronavirus. A repeat test the following day came back positive.
The restaurant, the warehouse, and the personnel's housing were then sanitised and the products were sealed.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 tests for employees and their family members, as well as samples taken from other food products and various items in the restaurant, came back negative.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The organisers of the Paris Marathon on Wednesday announced the cancellation of the annual race in the French capital which had been repeatedly rescheduled due to travel restrictions imposed worldwide in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
"After having tried everything to maintain the event, we, alongside the Ville de Paris, feel obliged to cancel the 2020 edition of the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris and the Paris Breakfast Run", the organisers said in a statement.
They added that everyone who was registered for the 2020 race, would automatically be moved to the list of next year’s runners. Meanwhile, the organisers will concentrate on the 2021 Paris Marathon, the statement said.
The Paris International Marathon was slated to take place in April, but as a COVID-related lockdown was introduced in France in mid-March, the race organisers moved it to October and then to 14-15 November. However, many participants would not be able to run because France has kept its borders shut due to renewed circulation of the pandemic in some parts of the world.
India's national carrier Air India on Wednesday announced it had shut offices in Vienna, Milan, Madrid, Copenhagen, and Stockholm due to zero flight operations in the region.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Egypt is in touch with Russian companies regarding the production of the country’s new coronavirus vaccine, Egyptian Ambassador to Moscow Ihab Nasr told Sputnik in an interview.
The diplomat said there are companies in Egypt that are able to produce and export vaccines, making Cairo-Moscow cooperation on the matter possible.
"We are now in touch with Russian companies that are developing the vaccine against the coronavirus, we are considering possible forms of cooperation on a commercial basis. All forms of cooperation are possible here and can be discussed", the ambassador said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday announced that the dissolution of the country's parliament ahead of a planned general election will be delayed to give lawmakers all possible options amid a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Parliament was due to dissolve today at 11:00 [23:00 GMT on Tuesday] … But the parliament dissolving does mean that if we needed to convene parliament for any reason, we wouldn’t be able to do so. We’ve therefore decided it would be prudent to defer the dissolution of parliament by at least a few days to preserve all options for, if needed, reconvening parliament", Ardern said at a press conference.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia may be able to produce 5 million doses of its new COVID-19 vaccine monthly by December, the director of the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Alexander Gintsburg, said on Wednesday.
"We expect them [manufacturers] to reach target capacity by December or January ... The target is about 5 million per month, perhaps more”, Gintsburg told a press conference.
MOSCOW, August 12 (Sputnik) - Russia's total COVID-19 case count has topped 900,000 after growing by 5,102 in the past 24 hours (4,945 yesterday), the country's coronavirus response centre said on Wednesday.
"Over the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 5,102 COVID-19 cases in 84 regions, of which 1,404 (27.5 percent) have been detected with people showing no clinical symptoms", the response centre said in a statement.
This takes the total case count to 902,701, with the daily increase standing at 0.6 percent.
MOSCOW (Sputnik), Andrei Savenkov - Rossotrudnichestvo, a Russian state agency responsible for the promotion of humanitarian cooperation, is interested in showcasing the country’s vaccine against COVID-19 to the foreign community, Yevgeny Primakov, the new head of the agency, told Sputnik in an interview.
"This is one of the most important stories that we can export because we have surprised the world with a low death rate. And thanks to our high-quality healthcare and the fact that we have vaccines, not just one, is already our strong side. Let the various tests, licensing, certification and approval end, and I would like through the Rossotrudnichestvo network, to present this vaccine to the world and show its effectiveness", Primakov said
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) worldwide has surpassed 20.2 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
It said the global case tally stood at 20,207,011 at 02:25 GMT Wednesday, with 739,898 deaths and 12,460,381 recoveries.
