MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th June, 2020) The number of coronavirus cases has reached 9.1 million worldwide, with 470,000 people dying from its complications, the chief of the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has also estimated that the world will hit the 10 million mark within next week. He said this was a sober reminder that the international community should do everything it can to suppress transmission and save lives.
The WHO regional director for the Americas, Carissa Etienne, said during a virtual briefing that the region accounted for almost a half of total COVID-19 cases and 226,000 deaths, and warned that both figures were rising.
India has recorded 15,900 new cases of coronavirus, continuing an upward trend. The country now has 456,183 cases, putting it ahead of former hotspot countries, such as Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Russia has registered 7,176 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total past 600,000, the country's coronavirus task force has said.
The Australian state of Victoria has registered the first death from coronavirus since May, taking the country's death toll to 103.
The Bulgarian government has extended the coronavirus-related state of emergency until mid-June. The southeast European nation has reported 4,114 coronavirus cases and 208 deaths.
Colombian President Ivan Duque has likewise announced that the nationwide quarantine will stay in place until July 15.
Slovak President Zuzana Caputova went into home quarantine on Wednesday after employees in her administration had a close contact with an infected person. She will self-isolate until Friday.
Apple, Google and other US tech giants said they were disappointed by President Donald Trump's executive order halting the issuance of several categories of work visas until the end of the year in a bid to prop up domestic employment.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed that the city's beaches would open on July 1 after the infection rate fell from several thousand daily new cases in April to several hundred in June.
Severe coronavirus patients need 620,000 cubic meters (21.9 million cubic feet) of oxygen a day, the WHO boss has estimated. He said many countries have been experiencing shortages because the global oxygen market is run by a handful of companies.
A potential new wave in 2021 could reduce global economic growth to naught, International Monetary Fund Chief Economist Gita Gopinath has warned.
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced that they are imposing a 14-day quarantine for all visitors from US states that have a significant community spread of the new coronavirus.
US stocks have dropped as much as 3 percent as investors reacted nervously to news of a fresh spike in coronavirus infections in many countries and grim world growth forecasts issued by the IMF.
This year's editions of Berlin and New York marathons have been canceled due to the pandemic.
Japanese biopharma firm AnGes wants to work together with Russia on a plasmid DNA vaccine against the virus it has been developing in Osaka. AnGes founder Ryuichi Morishita has told Sputnik that clinical trials will start in July.
Brazil, the world's worst-hit country, has started human trials of an experimental coronavirus vaccine, a medical source in the know has told Sputnik. The drug was developed at the University of Oxford.
