MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th June, 2020) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 418,000, over 7.44 million cases of infection were detected, and over 3.5 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 Thursday, the number of people infected globally is 7,442,050, of them 418,563 died.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 2,015,214, including 113,561 fatalities and 533,504 recoveries.
The European Commission recommended lifting all restrictions on internal border controls linked to the coronavirus by June 15 but prolonging the restrictions on entry from third countries until June 30.
Greece braces for reopening of tourism after the coronavirus pandemic by strengthening health care provisions in tourist destinations nationwide, Nikolaos Stamatis, the deputy director of the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO), told Sputnik. Greece is due to relaunch tourist arrivals from select countries on June 15.
The Finnish government announced that restrictions on movement through the border with Russia, imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic, would be in place through July 14.
The Egyptian government has decided to shorten the current curfew time by one hour starting on June 14 and reopen sports clubs at the beginning of next week, Minister of State for Information Affairs Osama Haikal announced.
The Bolivian authorities will close down the northern city of Cobija with a population of more than 50,000 on Monday due to the coronavirus outbreak, Luis Adolfo Flores, the governor of the Pando Department, said.
Global trade is expected to shrink by a fifth this year as economies struggle to overcome the effects of measures implemented to fight the novel coronavirus pandemic, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said.
The collapse of the fossil fuel sector, exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis, has demonstrated that renewable energy is becoming a more cost-effective investment than ever, and governments should prioritize clean energy in their post-pandemic economic recovery plans, UN report "The Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2020" says.
Some 1.5 million more Americans filed for first-time unemployment claims last week, the Labor Department said. That brought the total number of weekly claims filed since the start of the pandemic to nearly 45 million.
Italy's industrial production index fell 42.5 percent year-on-year in April, the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) said.
The coronavirus crisis cost France, including its overseas territories, half a million jobs from January-March, the Insee statistics agency reported.
Centrica, the parent company to one of the United Kingdom's largest gas providers, announced it would be cutting up to 5,000 jobs in an attempt to restructure the company and curb losses. London's Heathrow airport also said that it would not be able to sustain the current level of employment, as the UK authorities implement new travel regulations to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Many governments, national and local politicians, administrations and companies are going to face a storm of complaints filed by citizens, doctors, businesses and organizations to scrutinize their handling of the coronavirus crisis, which laid bare problems with protective equipment stockpiles and hospital readiness and also raised human rights concerns.
The degree of global multilateralism observed during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak is likely to remain once the pandemic has passed, which will facilitate the expansion of globalization, Argentina's Ambassador to Russia Ricardo Ernesto Lagorio said.
The public health department of California's Riverside county in the United States has canceled Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals in 2020 due to a possible second wave of COVID-19. Both festivals were originally scheduled for April but had to be postponed until October.
The European Union has mobilized nearly one billion Euros ($1.1 billion) in funds and equipment to help the countries of the Eastern Partnership combat the epidemiological and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the government had allocated nearly $100 million in funding for indigenous businesses in Canada affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
India values its friendly relations with Nepal and has been acting on it over the past years, including throughout the coronavirus pandemic, by providing humanitarian and technical assistance, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said.
The United Nations notes that Russia is making significant efforts in providing medical assistance amid the COVID-19 pandemic to everyone in need, including refugees, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) mission to Russia Vanno Noupech said.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and pharmaceutical company ChemRar said they started delivering Avifavir medication against COVID-19 to hospitals across the country.
Johan Carlson, the head of the Public Health Agency of Sweden, said that the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic in the coming fall was inevitable.
Joao Doria, the governor of Brazil's Sao Paulo state, announced on Thursday that Instituto Butantan, a leading bio research center, signed a contract on the production of COVID-19 vaccine with Chinese company Sinoval Biotech.
The ongoing dispute between China and the United States is hindering the global response to the COVID-19 outbreak, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said, adding that Berlin regrets Washington's withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO).
China considers the recent EU report on alleged COVID-19 disinformation campaigns by Beijing and Moscow to be misleading, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
The Kremlin does not consider the data on Russia's low COVID-19 mortality unusual, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Russia's public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, maintains contact with the World Health Organization (WHO) and is ready to answer any question.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has criticized Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests for violating the public health orders against COVID-19 and called for relevant charges for the participants.
