MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th June, 2020) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world neared 446,000, over 8.27 million cases of infection were detected, and over 4.02 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 8,273,605, of them 445,993 died.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 2,153,203, including 117,568 fatalities and 583,503 recoveries.
Major events in Germany will be canceled until the end of October due to the coronavirus pandemic, Bavarian Minister-President Markus Soder said following a meeting with colleagues from 15 German federal states and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
New York City is ready to enter phase two of reopening as early as Monday, June 22, following the coronavirus shutdown, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. Washington, DC will also likely start the same phase of reopening on June 22 as the trend of decreasing novel coronavirus cases continues, Mayor Muriel Bowser said.
The Danish Patient Safety Authority has urged people who took part in the Black Lives Matter protest in Copenhagen to get tested for the new coronavirus.
Flag carrier Qatar Airways has canceled its plans for the purchase of aircraft until 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic and global air travel decline, Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker told the Sky news broadcaster.
The culture and entertainment sector in the United Kingdom could suffer a loss of about 74 billion Pounds ($92.8 billion) and lose up to 400,000 jobs this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Creative Industries Federation (CIF) said.
More than half of Spanish nationals are not planning to travel for their summer holidays this year, a fresh poll revealed. The survey, conducted by the Spanish Center for Sociological Research (CIS) showed that 65.7 percent of respondents would rather stay at home, 27.2 percent said they would travel, while 7.1 percent were still in doubt.
The threat of a repeated spread of the coronavirus remains high at both the national and global levels, Vladimir Norov, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's (SCO) secretary-general, said.
The members of the European Union are still not on the same page regarding the EU Recovery Fund, which is to assist the economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday, days ahead of this week's EU summit.
The German cabinet has approved a plan to borrow a further 62.5 billion Euros ($70 billion), raising the total amount of government lending to finance the country's economic recovery amid the ongoing coronavirus disease pandemic to $245 billion, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said. Germany will be able to find additional resources to support the economy in case of a second wave of the coronavirus epidemic, Scholz also said.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan called on the UK government to provide emergency funding to protect vital public services, such as the capital's police force and public transport authority, which face a total budget shortfall of 493 million pounds ($619 million) over the next two years due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Russia has delivered over 500,000 test systems for detecting COVID-19 to almost 30 countries across the world since February 1, Anna Popova, the head of the national public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said.
China will cancel the debt of several African countries in the form of interest-free government loans and will accelerate the construction of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) headquarters amid the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese President Xi Jinping said.
Russia's research center Vektror will start clinical trials of its vaccine against COVID-19 on volunteers on July 15, with the vaccine expected to be registered in the fall, Director Rinat Maksyutov said.
German biopharmaceutical company CureVac announced that it had received permission to conduct the first stage of clinical trials for its vaccine against COVID-19 from the Belgian and German authorities. The company began developing the vaccine earlier in the year. The first phase is said to be conducted at the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Tuebingen and the Ghent University Hospital, the Tropical Institute of the University Hospital Munich, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Hannover Medical school.
The first human trials of a vaccine against COVID-19 produced by Japanese researchers will commence on June 30, Hirofumi Yoshimura, the governor of Osaka prefecture, said.
South Korea intends to test a candidate coronavirus vaccine and treatment on monkeys later in June, national media reported, citing the Science Ministry.
WHO has decided to stop randomization of hydroxychloroquine drug, tested for potential COVID-19 treatment, Ana Maria Henao Restrepo, the head of WHO R&D unit, said. The effects of hydroxychloroquine have been studied by UK-based organization Cochrane, which reviews and summarizes available scientific and medical evidence, as well as the WHO Solidarity Trial and the UK RECOVERY Trial.
Dexamethasone should be used for COVID-19 treatment only under close supervision, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. A widely available steroid treatment, dexamethasone, can significantly improve survival rates of severe coronavirus patients, a recent statement on trial results said.
Polish Health Ministry spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz said that Poland had been aware of the dexamethasone drug for a long time and that it had been used to treat patients with COVID-19.
The Saudi Health Ministry approved of the use of dexamethasone medication against COVID-19. On Tuesday, the University of Oxford shared the results of its study indicating a reduction in mortality among COVID-19 patients who take steroid treatment dexamethasone. The UK government has already approved it to be used as a treatment for the coronavirus disease.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa inaugurated a continent-wide marketplace to enable African governments to access critical medical items, warning that the coronavirus outbreak would probably get worse with time.
Norwegian Fisheries and Seafood Minister Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen said that salmon originating in the county had not been the cause of a coronavirus outbreak at a Beijing market. Earlier, the cluster of new coronavirus cases has been traced to the Xinfadi market in the Chinese capital. The virus was found on chopping boards used for imported salmon.
