MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2020) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world reached almost 326,000, over 4.96 million cases of infection were detected, and over 1.88 million of those patients were cured, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University, which tracks and compiles data from federal and local authorities, media and other sources.
As of 21.00 GMT Wednesday, the number of people infected globally is 4,966,006, of them 325,810 died.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 1,541,110, including 93,119 fatalities and 289,392 recoveries.
New York State is loosening its restrictions on religious gatherings to allow assemblies of up to 10 people at a time provided that social distancing and other guidelines are maintained, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
Spain's lower house of parliament, the Congress of Deputies, supported the government's proposal to extend the coronavirus-related high alert until June 7.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party shares the German population's fears of a severe economic crisis as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and demands that the government acts faster to reopen the economy, party member Albert Breininger told Sputnik.
The tourist season in Greece may begin in the coming weeks, as the country's largest tourist agency, Mouzenidis travel Greece, is launching sales of tours to Greece starting from July 1, the company's chief Georgios Masmanidis, told Sputnik.
Turkey will not accept tourists from Russia and other countries with a large number of coronavirus cases in June, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.
The Latvian government aims to lift the coronavirus-related state of emergency in June, while keeping certain limitations in place to ensure that the pandemic is completely eradicated, Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krisjanis Karins said.
The Ukrainian cabinet decided to extend the lockdown, imposed in the country to contain COVID-19, to June 22, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said, specifying that some of the restrictions will be eased.
Jordan declared a round-the-clock curfew during Eid al-Fitr, a holiday that marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, due to a rise in COVID-19 cases.
Cambodia has lifted the ban on entry introduced back in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic for citizens of the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Iran, the Cambodian Khmer Times newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing the country's health minister.
The Chilean authorities decided to prolong the total quarantine in the capital region for another week as part of efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the country's Health Ministry said.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has signed a decree on extending the coronavirus-related quarantine in the country until June 6, which deepened his conflict with the country's legislative and judicial authorities that have accused the head of state of usurping powers.
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in the country's biggest city of Lagos urged health workers to start an indefinite strike after a number of their colleagues had complained about harassment on part of police for violating the lockdown despite being exempt from the stay-at-home order.
The global COVID-19 crisis threatens to end three decades of consecutive yearly gains in human development in areas including education, health and living standards, the UN Development Program (UNDP) said.
The global trade in goods significantly declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is consistent with the World Trade Organization's (WTO) recent forecast on the reduction in world merchandise trade in 2020, the WTO said.
Paris is sympathetic to the search for adapted formats of holding the 75th UN General Assembly in New York City in September, taking into account the situation with the coronavirus pandemic, and is open to discussing the proposal of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the press service of the French presidential office told Sputnik.
The United States assesses the economic impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic at $9 trillion, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
Almost half of US households lost income amid pandemic-induced economic lockdowns since mid-March, a Census Bureau survey revealed.
Former Vice President Joe Biden would defeat President Donald Trump in a head-to-head matchup if the election were held today by a 48-43 percent margin in part because US voters are more confident in Biden's ability to revive the virus-battered economy, a Rasmussen poll revealed.
France's private sector saw a record 64.9 percent drop in the number of employment applications in April, as the economy has been experiencing a shock caused by the COVID-19 restrictions, the Central Agency of Social Security Institutions (ACOSS) reported.
The French government has not put enough efforts into hospital reform in recent years, unveiling the flaws of the French health care system amid the coronavirus crisis, Health Minister Olivier Veran said.
Pilots of the Belgian flag carrier Brussels Airlines have proposed that their salaries and working hours are cut by 45 percent over the next three years to avoid mass layoffs due to the coronavirus pandemic, media reported.
UK aircraft engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce is planning to cut at least 9,000 jobs, which amounts to 17.3 percent of the company's global workforce, due to falling demand for civil aerospace engines amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office said it had adjusted the consolidated plan of inspections of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs due to the coronavirus epidemic, canceling more than 200,000 inspections this year.
The world's space sector has showcased resilience and even proved to be useful in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic although some space activities have been canceled or shelved, Niklas Hedman, the chief of the Committee, Policy and Legal Affairs Section at the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), said in an interview with Sputnik.
Less than 3,000 foreign tourists, the lowest number in decades, visited Japan last month, which is a 99.9 percent year-on-year drop, the Kyodo news agency reported, citing government data.
Renewable energy will suffer from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic even though costs for renewable energy sources have dramatically decreased over the preceding decade, International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol said.
The United States has allocated additional $163 million in aid to help efforts to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
US military aircraft on Wednesday transported 50 ventilators from California to Maryland in the first leg of a mission trip to deliver medical aid to Russia for treatment of patients with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the 315th Airlift Wing said in a statement.
The Russian parliament's upper house, the Federation Council, sent on Wednesday its proposals on the preparation of a national action plan in connection with the coronavirus epidemic to the government. The proposals include exemption of vital or scarce foreign-made goods from countermeasures imposed in response to Western sanctions.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) aims to step up COVID-19 prevention activities in Yemen as the conflict-hit nation sees a jump in cases, Yara Khawaja, the spokeswoman for the ICRC in the country told Sputnik.
The municipal government of China's Wuhan issued a carpet ban on all forms of consumption, trade, breeding, or hunting of wild animals. An animal market in Wuhan is widely believed to be the site where the novel coronavirus jumped from its original animal host to humans.
As many as 47 vaccines against COVID-19 are now being developed in Russia, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said.
Clinical trials of a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the coronavirus infection, will be carried out among volunteers in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, Dmitry Morozov, the director-general of biotechnology company Biocad, said.
First clinical trials of a drug that could potentially treat acute respiratory distress syndrome, a major symptom of COVID-19, have begun in Belgium, Le Soir newspaper reported. The medicine, named Sarconeos, is produced by French biotech firm Biophytis. The Belgian Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products gave its approval to begin clinical trials on 50 patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus disease.
A prototype vaccine against COVID-19 developed by Thailand's Chulalongkorn University and recently successfully tested on mice is being prepared for manufacturing in the United States and Canada ahead of human trials, media reported, citing Suvit Maesincee, the Thai minister of higher education, science, research and innovation.
The Netherlands' agricultural ministry said it suspects minks can carry and infect humans with the novel coronavirus and is instituting mandatory testing measures in all mink farms in the country.
The Italian Society of Pediatrics (SIP) is monitoring cases of the Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome (PMIS) in children that might be related to COVID-19 and recommends the use of protective masks for children over three years old, SIP President Alberto Villani told Sputnik.
The United Kingdom's delayed COVID-19 contact tracing application, which is currently being piloted on the Isle of Wight, will likely be launched in the near future, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said.
Stores across the UK capital should ensure that they have suitable stocks of reusable face masks that can be readily purchased by the city's residents as the government moves towards easing the lockdown restrictions that were put in force to curb the spread of COVID-19, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.
The French government will continue to distribute face masks to the public and aims to produce 50 million items per week by October in order to ensure public safety as the country lifts its coronavirus-related restrictions, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, the secretary of state for economy and finance, announced.
The World Health Organization's (WHO) annual budget of $2.3 billion per year equates to the budget of a medium-sized hospital in the developed world, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The work of the WHO has been assessed regularly after major outbreaks, including those of SARS and Ebola, Tedros said, commenting on the call of the World Health Assembly's (WHA) resolution for evaluating WHO's response to the pandemic.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Tedros of having close ties to China that began long before the COVID-19 crisis. He alleged that China had used its influence over the WHO to exclude Taiwan from this week's Health Assembly in Geneva.
The Belgian authorities have made concessions after medical workers vowed to go on strike over the government's poor managing of the COVID-19 pandemic and recently passed controversial decrees, the country's Health Minister Maggie de Block said, adding that two of them had already been revoked.
Bloomberg corrected its article on COVID-19 where the author used distorted data on the number of beds available in Russia to speak about the country's preparedness for the pandemic after the Russian embassy requested an official rebuttal.
