The number of people who have been infected globally is 15,226,993, of these, 623,374 have died.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, 3,970,901 people have caught the virus, resulting in 143,187 fatalities; 1,210,849 have reportedly recovered.
Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has issued an executive order requiring citizens to wear masks outside of the home as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Germany has confirmed 815 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, with the total count reaching 204,183, the Robert Koch Institute said on Friday.
The death toll has grown by 10 to 9,111 people within the same period of time. Some 189,400 people have recovered since the start of the outbreak.
A day earlier, the country confirmed 569 new coronavirus cases and six fatalities.
MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – The number of people, who have died of COVID-19 in Mexico, has risen by 718 to 41,908 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 8,438 to 370,712 within the same period of time.
A day earlier, the Latin American nation recorded 6,019 new cases of the coronavirus, with 790 fatalities.
BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil has increased by 59,961 to 2,287,475 within the past 24 hours, the national Ministry of Health said on late Wednesday.
The death toll has risen by 1,311 to 84,082 people within the same period of time. Over 1.57 million people have recovered since the start of the outbreak.
A day earlier, Brazil reported about record 67,860 new cases of the coronavirus disease and 1,284 new fatalities.
Brazil comes second on a global tally of coronavirus cases after the United States, which has recorded over 4 million COVID-19 patients.
BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) – Argentina has confirmed 6,127 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 148,027, the national Ministry of Health said.
A day earlier, Argentina recorded 5,782 new COVID-19 cases and 98 fatalities.
"Today, 6,127 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, bringing the total number of [COVID-19] positive tests in the country to 148,027," the ministry said in a daily bulletin on late Thursday.
The death toll has increased by 110 to 2,702 people within the same period of time.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated the overall number of coronavirus cases globally at 15,012,731, with 650,150 people having died from the disease.
The UN health agency said in the situation report published on late Thursday that 247,225 new cases had been recorded in the past day, while further 7,097 patients had died.
Americas continue to lead the count with over 7.9 million cases, followed by Europe with more than 3.1 million.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Moscow has registered 11 deaths of patients infected with COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the Russian capital's death toll to 4,375, the city's coronavirus response centre said in a statement on Thursday.
"Another 11 patients, who were diagnosed with pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus infection, died in Moscow", the centre said.
In the previous day, 14 people infected with the coronavirus died in Moscow.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The United States, Brazil and India alone account for close to half of all coronavirus cases recorded by the World Health Organisation (WHO) around the world, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday.
The latest WHO-verified data on COVID-19 has stated more than 15 million confirmed cases and almost 620,000 deaths.
"Although all countries have been affected, we continue to see intense transmission in a relatively small group of countries. Almost 10 million cases, or two-thirds of all cases globally, are from 10 countries, and almost half of all cases reported so far are from just three countries", Tedros said at a virtual briefing.
According to the WHO estimates, the United States has for already forth month remained the country with the highest single count of cases and fatalities — 3.8 million and over 140,000, respectively.
Brazil raised to be the second line in June, presently accounting for more than 2.1 million cases and 80,000 deaths.
India comes third with 1.2 million cases and over 28,000 deaths.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Over 115,000 new cases of COVID-19 have been registered in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past week, with about two-thirds of new cases recorded in South Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organisation (WHO) regional director for Africa, said at a briefing on Thursday.
"In the WHO African region, which is mainly sub-Saharan Africa, we have had more than 115,000 cases in the past week, and 93 percent of these occurred in the 10 counties, including over 74 percent coming from South Africa. Cases also increased in southern African countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia", Moeti said.
The official noted that the increase in the number of new cases coincides with the removal of lockdown restrictions by African governments.
The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Africa has surpassed 769,000 since the beginning of the outbreak, and the death toll from the disease has reached 16,000, according to the latest WHO figures. Nearly 400,000 cases of COVID-19 and 6,000 fatalities have been reported from South Africa alone.
Citizens will be required to wear face coverings in supermarkets, indoor shopping centres, transport hubs, banks and post offices, otherwise they could face a fine of up to £100.
The Moscow authorities are not going to introduce any quarantine restrictions due to the coronavirus, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
"No one is planning any quarantines from any date. We will look at the circumstances, at the situation. Today, the situation is quite calm and stable, and then we will wait for the vaccine to appear," Sobyanin said, commenting on reports about possible introduction of a new quarantine in Moscow on 15 September.
Some 1.4 million Americans filed for first-time unemployment claims last week, the Labor Department said on Thursday, as a new wave of coronavirus infections continued to overwhelm the world’s largest economy that just emerged from lockdowns two months ago.
“In the week ending July 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 1,416,000,” the department said in a news release. The figures marked the first increase in weekly jobless claims since March. Last week’s filings amounted to around 1.3 million and came on top of previous filings of nearly 52 million over 17 weeks.
"It is not the end of the story and we've got to be very, very vigilant as we go forward into the colder months," Johnson said.
Daniel Andrews, the premier of Australia's Victoria state, announced on Thursday that regional authorities will provide all people waiting for their COVID-19 test results with 300 Australian dollars ($214) as a hardship payment so that they can take days off at work.
The state has recently seen a surge in new cases. The premier announced at a press briefing that the state has recorded 403 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the state reported a record of 484 cases and two deaths.
"Too many people are going to work sick because they can’t afford to miss a shift. That’s why we’re bringing in a new $300 support payment – available as soon as you get tested. Because ‘waiting at home for your results’ needs to mean exactly that. For everyone’s sake," Andrews wrote on Twitter.
According to Andrews, those who will test positive for the disease will be eligible for a further payment of 1,500 Australian dollars.
The premier said that these payments would help people "make better choices," as many of them did not want to go to a hospital and get tested while feeling unwell, as they feared they would not be able to work.
Australia has so far recorded 13,319 COVID-19 cases and almost 130 deaths, while more than 8,600 people have recovered from the disease.
Tokyo has recorded more than 300 new cases of the coronavirus infection over the past 24 hours, the highest daily increment since the outbreak, with the capital's cumulative number of infections nearing 11,000, Japanese media reported on Thursday as residents of the city have recently said they prefer the 2020 Summer Olympics be canceled given the current epidemiological situation.
The Kyodo news agency's survey found in late June that over 50 percent of Tokyo residents would prefer that the 2020 Summer Olympics be either canceled altogether or once again postponed to a later period. Meanwhile, 46.3 percent expressed support for the Olympics to be held as scheduled, and 31.1 percent of them think that the Games should be held in a reduced format.
According to the NHK broadcaster, the Japanese capital has been registering more than 100 cases per day for 15 days in a row, with the previous daily high of 293 being confirmed last week.
Given the deteriorating epidemiological situation, Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko urged the city's residents to refrain from going out as much as possible during the four-day holiday starting on Thursday.
On a national level, Japan has confirmed over 27,800 infections, including 712 patients who were infected aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in February. Meanwhile, over 1,000 patients have died and about 20,800 others have recovered from the disease.
The number of infections in Tokyo is published separately since the holding of the 2021 Olympics depends on the epidemiological situation. The event that was initially scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8 was postponed in late March to the same period of 2021 due to the pandemic.
Russia has registered 5,848 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours (5,862 yesterday), bringing the cumulative total to 795,038, the country's coronavirus response centre said on Thursday.
"Over the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 5,848 COVID-19 cases in 83 regions, of which 1,620 (27.7 percent) have been detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the response center said in a statement, adding that the total count has now reached 795,038, with the daily increase standing at 0.7 percent.
Moscow has registered 608 cases in the past 24 hours, which is more than any other region in Russia, followed by the Sverdlovsk Region with 249 cases and the Nizhny Novgorod Region with 202 new cases (compared to 638, 237 and 217 yesterday, respectively).
No new cases have been recorded in the Nenets Autonomous Region and Sevastopol.
As many as 147 COVID-19 patients died in Russia over the past 24 hours (165 on the previous day), which brings the death toll to 12,892.
A total of 8,277 coronavirus patients have been discharged (compared to 9,669 on the previous day), bringing the total number of recoveries to 580,330.
According to the Russian public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, over 26 million tests to detect COVID-19 have been conducted in the country since the beginning of the outbreak, and 267,000 suspected virus carriers remain under medical monitoring.
Beijing is ready to provide Latin American and Caribbean states with $1 billion loan to purchase China-made COVID-19 vaccine, the Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The offer was made during a video conference between foreign ministers of China and Latin American and Caribbean countries on July 23. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon co-chaired the meeting.
"The minister [Wang Yi] stressed that the vaccine developed in China will be a public good of universal access, and that his country will allocate a $1 billion loan to support access to the medication for countries in the region," the statement said.
In May, President Xi Jinping said that China would provide $2 billion over two years to assist the global COVID-19 response and socioeconomic development of the affected countries.
China has registered 22 cases of the coronavirus infection over the past 24 hours and another 31 asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19, the National Health Commission said on Thursday, adding that 15 people recovered over the given period.
According to the commission, out of the 22 new cases, 19 are local, while the rest are imported.
The country’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases now stands at 83,729, the death toll is 4,634. The total number of recovered patients is 78,855. There are 2,023 imported cases, of which 1,947 have recovered.
The number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong stands at 2,632 people, with 14 patients dead and 1,334 discharged from hospitals. Forty-six people have been infected with the disease in Macao, and all of them have already been released from medical facilities. The number of infected people in Taiwan amounts to 455, with seven of them dead and 440 others recovered.
India has confirmed 45,720 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of those infected having reached 1,238,635, the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.
The death toll from the disease has reached 29,861, with 1,129 new fatalities being recorded over the past day. More than 782,000 people have recovered in India since the start of the outbreak.
India's central state of Maharashtra with confirmed 337,607 cases remains the most affected region. It is followed by the southern state of Tamil Nadu, with 186,492 cases, and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, with 126,323 cases.
A day earlier, India registered 37,724 new coronavirus cases and 648 fatalities.
India comes third in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States and Brazil.
