The United States remain the most-affected country, as it confirmed 2.22 mln cases and almost 120,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University. At the same time, Brazil is suffering from a major outbreak; the number of cases there has surpassed 1 million and approximately 49,000 deaths have been confirmed.
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BEIJING (Sputnik) - China registered 26 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, three COVID-19 patients recovered over that period, the country’s National Health Commission said on Sunday.
Out of the 26 new cases, all but one are local, 22 of them registered in Beijing, where a hike in new infections started earlier this month. According to the commission, China registered six asymptomatic coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours.
The country’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases now stands at 83,378, the death toll is 4,634. The total number of recovered individuals in China stands at 78,413.
A new cluster of coronavirus cases was detected in Beijing earlier this month. On 13 June, Beijing authorities announced they had shut down the city’s major wholesale food market, Xinfadi, after several dozen people linked to the market tested positive for the coronavirus. Restrictive measures have been re-imposed in the Chinese capital.
The current coronavirus pandemic started in China in December of last year. Initial reports indicated that the start of the COVID-19 epidemic in China could be linked to a "wet market" in the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province, where meat, live animals and seafood were sold.
According to local reports, the coronavirus was detected on a chopping board for imported salmon at the Xinfadi market this month.
TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - A further 294 positive tests for COVID-19 have been reported in Israel over the past 24 hours, taking the country’s case total to 20,633, the Ministry of Health said, amid a second wave of cases.
Saturday’s increase to the case total is slightly below the 303 new positive tests reported on Friday.
The ministry of health also confirmed that one person had died due to complications from the disease over the preceding 24 hours, taking the country’s death toll to 305.
The total number of active cases in Israel currently stands at 4,668, as 15,659 people have now recovered from the disease, the ministry said.
A second wave of cases emerged in Israel in late May after the country began to relax social distancing restrictions. Many of the recent cases have been identified in schools.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The COVID-19 state of emergency in the Australian state of Victoria has been extended for another four weeks, until 19 July, the state’s health minister Jenny Mikakos said on Sunday, amid a surge in new cases.
“Acting on the advice of the chief health officer this morning, I have extended the state of emergency to 23:59 [13:59 GMT] on July 19, 2020. So the state of emergency that has been in place for some time has been extended for a further four weeks,” Mikakos said at a press conference.
Public health officials in the state have confirmed 19 new cases of the coronavirus disease over the preceding 24 hours. Mikakos noted that a surge in cases had influenced the decision to extend the emergency measures, which will allow for legal guidance to be issued.
“This is because we still have a public health emergency in Victoria, but most importantly, the state of emergency enables the chief health officer to continue to issue fresh legal directions which enables us to put in place all the appropriate legal mechanisms to manage the pandemic going forward,” the health minister said.
According to Australia’s 9News broadcaster, there are 121 active cases of COVID-19 in the state of Victoria as of Sunday.
MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Mexico now stands at over 175,200 while the country’s COVID-19 death toll has surpassed 20,700, the latest data from the country’s Health Ministry shows.
There are currently more than 23,500 active coronavirus cases in Mexico, Jose Luis Alomia, the director of epidemiology at Mexico’s Ministry of Health, said during a Saturday press conference, broadcast on Twitter.
The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country is 175,202 with 4,717 cases having been registered in the past 24 hours. Over that period, 387 new COVID-19 deaths were registered with the total death toll standing at 20,781.
On Friday, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Mexico stood at 170,485 and the death toll stood at 20,394. A week ago, Mexico had over 142,000 coronavirus cases while the country’s COVID-19 death toll stood at around 16,800.
Thus the country had a weekly death toll rise of around 4,000 and a weekly increase of around 33,000 COVID-19 cases. This is greater than the weekly increases registered in the previous 7-day period, when Mexico had a weekly death toll rise of around 3,000 and a weekly increase of around 30,000 COVID-19 cases.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Brazil confirmed nearly 35,000 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours and over 1,000 new deaths from COVID-19, Health Ministry data shows.
There are now 1,067,579 confirmed coronavirus cases in Brazil with 34,666 new cases having been confirmed over a 24-hour period, according to Saturday data from the country’s health ministry.
In the past 24 hours, 1,022 people died from COVID-19 in Brazil; the country’s total coronavirus death toll stands at 49,976. Over 520,000 people have recovered.
On Friday, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Brazil surpassed one million. A week ago, Brazil had around 867,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the country’s COVID-19 death toll stood at around 43,000. Thus, the country has seen a weekly increase of around 200,000 cases and a weekly increase of nearly 7,000 deaths.
According to the health ministry, the COVID-19 mortality rate in Brazil is five percent. Brazil has the second-highest coronavirus death toll, it is surpassed only by the United States, which has registered over 119,500 COVID-19 fatalities. Brazil and the United States are also the top two countries in terms of the total number of registered coronavirus cases (the United States has the highest total of over 2.2 million COVID-19 cases).
PARIS (Sputnik) - The total number of coronavirus cases confirmed in France has surpassed 160,000 with over 600 cases having been registered in the past 24 hours, according to the latest update on the public health website.
As of late Saturday, there were 160,093 confirmed COVID-19 cases in France. Over 9,800 people are currently being treated for COVID-19 at French hospitals, according to health ministry data.
The total number of COVID-19 deaths confirmed at French hospitals stands at 29,633. In the past 24 hours, 19 people died from COVID-19 at French hospitals.
A week ago, France’s coronavirus death toll stood at around 29,400 while the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases was at over 193,700.
On Saturday, protesters covered the building of the Paris headquarters of the French health ministry with red paint symbolizing the blood of those who have died from COVID-19. According to a statement released by the activist group calling itself "Attac," years of defunding and neglect have left the French healthcare system ill-prepared for emergencies such as the coronavirus pandemic.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The number of coronavirus-related fatalities in the Russian capital has increased by 32 over the past day, taking the cumulative death toll to 3,597, Moscow COVID-19 Response Center said in a daily update on Saturday.
"In Moscow, 32 patients died, all of them with confirmed diagnosis of pneumonia and positive coronavirus tests," the center said.
The previous update on Friday stated 34 coronavirus fatalities recorded per one day.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The global cumulative toll of confirmed coronavirus cases has surpassed the landmark of 8.5 million, with 138,980 cases recorded over the past day, the World Health Organization said in its daily situation report on Saturday.
Over the past 24 hours, 6,271 people died from COVID-19 worldwide, taking the death toll to 456,973 fatalities, according to the report.
The cumulative global toll of confirmed cases has now reached 8,525,042, as stated in the report.
The plurality of cases and deaths — 4.16 million and 215,903, respectively — remain concentrated in the Americas. The United States continues being the country with the highest single count of cases and fatalities — 2.17 million and 118,205, respectively.
ANKARA (Sputnik) - Health authorities in Turkey have detected 1,248 new cases of the coronavirus infection over the past day, driving the cumulative toll to surpass 186,000 cases, according to a situation update by Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Saturday.
The number of cases detected per one day in Turkey fell only couple dozens short of 1,500 this past Tuesday and Wednesday and then decreased to 1,304 on Thursday and 1,214 on Friday.
According to Koca's report, posted on Twitter, the cumulative toll since the epidemic's start in Turkey has now grown to 186,493 cases.
Throughout the day, 22 people died from COVID-19, taking the death toll to 4,927.
Total recoveries have reached 158,828, an increase of 1,312 from the day before.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world has topped 8.5 million, with more than 456,000 deaths, the World Health Organisation said on Saturday.
The reproduction rate of the COVID-19 infection in Germany has risen to 1.79, according to the Robert Koch Institute for public health.
To contain the spread of the disease, a reproduction rate should be estimated at less than 1.
Spain will open its doors to British tourists from Sunday without requiring them to spend two weeks in quarantine, the country's foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said.
"We will allow British visitors to enter Spain just like the rest of the European Union or Schengen area from 21 June freely and without the need for the quarantine," Gonzalez Laya told BBC News.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services, said on Saturday it had halted clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for patients with the coronavirus infection, as it proved to be of no effect.
"A clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of adults hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 has been stopped by the National Institutes of Health. A data and safety monitoring board met late Friday and determined that while there was no harm, the study drug was very unlikely to be beneficial to hospitalized patients with COVID-19," the NIH said in a press release.
Anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was earlier touted by US President Donald Trump as a potential treatment for COVID-19, but various researchers around the world found no scientific justification to believe so.
Earlier this week, the US Food and Drug Administration revoked the previously issued emergency use authorization to hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19 after conducting a large clinical trial which showed that these drugs were of no benefit for decreasing the likelihood of death or speeding recovery.
This past Wednesday, the World Health Organization, too, stopped clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine within its international Solidarity Trial initiative after receiving findings from the UK-based Cochrane organization on the drug's ineffectiveness as treatment method for COVID-19 patients.
As of 9am 20 June, there have been 7,714,201 tests, with 230,550 tests on 19 June.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) June 20, 2020
303,110 people have tested positive.
As of 5pm on 19 June, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 42,589 have sadly died.
More info:
▶️ https://t.co/xXnL3FU15k pic.twitter.com/7S48LxqRcS
"I congratulate all Russian medical workers as the upcoming professional holiday approaches. I would like to wish you happiness and health and, of course, to thank you for your dedicated work. I have already done this several times indirectly, without meeting you, but now I want to do this, as they say, in direct, because during a period of serious challenges, you have been decently and courageously performing your duty — and still do", Putin said.
According to the Russian president, the service of medical workers throughout the pandemic will go down in history, putting them on par with their colleagues' service throughout the country's toughest periods of war.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that only 2 percent of available lung ventilators are used to treat COVID-19 patients in Russia thanks to the country's proactive approach to the pandemic.
"Only 2 percent of available lung ventilation systems — if I am wrong, the minister will correct me later — are used, although we have not yet fully implemented the plan to equip hospital beds with them," Putin said during a meeting with medical workers.
According to the president, these figures indicate that the authorities and medical workers have proactively responded to the pandemic, providing every patient — both in hospitals and at home — with special attention.
Moreover, Putin expressed hope that Russian regions affected by COVID-19 pandemic would learn from Moscow's successful experience in fighting the outbreak.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia may begin producing a vaccine against COVID-19 this fall, the director of the Gamalei National Research Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Alexander Gintsburg, said on Saturday.
"Production of the Russian coronavirus vaccine may begin in the fall of 2020. More than 4,000 blood plasma samples were analysed using the test system for COVID-19 immunity created by the Gamalei Centre," Gintsburg said, as quoted by the press service of the Defence Ministry.
The vaccine trials are being carried out jointly by the Russian Defence Ministry and the Gamalei Research Centre.
Several more COVID-19 cases have been identified among military personnel at the US Misawa Air Base in Japan’s Aomori Prefecture, the press service of the air base said on Saturday.
"Upon their arrival to Misawa from the United States on a US government-chartered flight, a couple of SOFA [Status of Forces Agreement] members tested positive for COVID-19. The members arrived at Misawa Air Base June 15 and were in mandatory restriction of movement in their quarters since arriving, as is policy for all newly-arrived personnel. There was no outside contact with any others", the air base's press service wrote on Facebook.
No details concerning the exact number and nationality of the new patients have been provided.
On Wednesday, media reported, citing the municipal authorities, that three employees of the Misawa Air Base tested positive for the coronavirus. All cases were reported to be asymptomatic. The carriers of the virus had arrived at the base from another facility where COVID-19 was detected.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia has registered 7,889 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours (7,972 yesterday), bringing the total count to 576,952, the national coronavirus response centre said on Saturday.
"Over the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 7,889 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions, of which 2,579 (32.7 percent) have been detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the response centre said in a statement, adding that the country had confirmed 576,952 cases (+1.4 percent) so far.
Of all the new cases, 1,057 have been registered in Moscow, 591 in the Moscow Region and 280 in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area (compared to yesterday's 1,136, 646 and 259, respectively).
The country's COVID-19 death toll has grown by 161 (181 yesterday) to 8,002.
As many as 10,186 COVID-19 patients have recovered across the country (10,443 yesterday), bringing the total number of cured people to 334,592.
BISHKEK (Sputnik) - Kyrgyzstan has detected a record-breaking 192 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours; the overall number of patients in the country is now 2,981, the country's coronavirus response centre said on Saturday.
"As of 20 June 2020, 192 new COVID-19 cases were registered across the republic, 94 of them in Bishkek", the center said, noting that 13 of the new infections were detected among medical workers.
SEOUL (Sputnik) - Another 67 COVID-19 cases have been identified in South Korea over the past 24 hours, bringing the total count to 12,373, the Health Ministry's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said on Saturday.
Out of 67 new cases, 36 had resulted from the internal transmission. Fourteen new cases have been recorded in the capital of Seoul and 17 in the province of Gyeonggi, among others.
The death toll in South Korea stands at 280. The number of people who have recovered has increased to 10,856, according to the health authorities.
MOSCOW, June 20 (Sputnik) – The National Hockey League (NHL) said that 11 out of more than 200 players who underwent COVID-19 tests have turned out to be infected with the coronavirus.
The NHL decided to suspend the season on March 12 amid the vast increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States.
"Since NHL Clubs were permitted to open their training facilities on June 8, all Players entering these facilities for voluntary training have been subject to mandatory testing for COVID-19. Through today, in excess of 200 Players have undergone multiple testing. A total of 11 of these Players have tested positive", the NHL said on late Friday.
All the players who tested positive for COVID-19 have been placed in isolation, in line with the relevant protocols of the US and Canadian medical authorities.
"The NHL will provide a weekly update on the number of tests administered to Players and the results of those tests. The League will not be providing information on the identity of the Players or their Clubs," the league added.
BEIJING (Sputnik) – China registered 27 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, including 22 cases in Beijing, after the discovery of a new COVID-19 cluster at a major food market in the Chinese capital, the country’s National Health Commission said on Saturday.
Out of 27 new cases, 23 are local, and four had foreign origins. In addition to Beijing, one local case was detected in the northern province of Hebei. Moreover, China had detected seven asymptomatic cases of the novel coronavirus disease.
On Friday, China registered 32 new COVID-19 cases, including 25 in the capital.
NEW DELHI (Sputnik) - India's COVID-19 case count has increased by a record 14,500 over the past 24 hours, bringing the overall number of coronavirus patients in the country to 395,048, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated on Saturday.
India has continued to average more than 12,000 new coronavirus cases daily since 12 June. On Friday, the country confirmed more than 13,500 new cases and around 12,800 new cases were reported on Thursday. According to Johns Hopkins University, India now ranks fourth in terms of COVID-19 cases confirmed since the beginning of the pandemic, after the United States, Brazil and Russia.
According to the ministry, 168,269 COVID-19 patients are currently undergoing treatment in the country. The number of those who have contracted the virus and recovered has reached 213,830 after increasing by 9,120 over the past 24 hours, and the death toll has grown by 375 to 12,948.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Germany has confirmed 601 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, with the total count reaching 189,135, the Robert Koch Institute said on Saturday.
The death toll has grown by 11 to 8,883 people within the same period of time.
A day earlier, the country confirmed 770 new cases and 16 fatalities.
