Coronavirus: Latest Global Developments

Paris, July 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Jul, 2020 ) :Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis: - Five million begin Melbourne lockdown - Five million people in Australia's second-biggest city begin a new lockdown, with residents told to stay at home for six weeks as Melbourne grapples with a resurgence of cases.

The state of Victoria announces a further 165 new cases and has been effectively sealed off in an effort to preserve the rest of Australia's success in curbing the virus.

- WHO warns against division - World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says a divided planet cannot conquer the pandemic.

"Together is the solution unless we want to give the advantage to the enemy, to the virus that has taken the world hostage," he says at the agency's Geneva headquarters.

- 'Criminal hooligans' - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accuses "criminal hooligans" of driving the violence in protests that have erupted in Belgrade and other cities over his government's handling of the pandemic.

Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic says 10 officers were injured during a second night of clashes in the capital.

- Nearly 550,000 dead - The pandemic has killed at least 549,701 people worldwide since it surfaced in China late last year, according to an AFP tally at 1100 GMT on Thursday based on official sources.

More than 12 million cases have been registered in 196 countries and territories.

The United States is the hardest-hit country with 132,309 deaths. It is followed by Brazil with 67,964, Britain with 44,517, Italy with 34,914 and Mexico with 32,796 fatalities.

- Promising answers - The WHO says it has launched an independent pandemic response panel headed by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, to provide understanding on its handling of the crisis.

- Cleaner future? - United Nations chief Antonio Guterres urges world leaders to favour clean energy solutions as they pour money into their virus-hit economies.

Governments should exit coal, stop subsidising other fossil fuels, and pressure polluting industries to clean up their act in exchange for bailing them out, the UN Secretary-General tells an International Energy Agency conference by video link.

- Bulgaria backtracks - Bulgaria bans football fans from stadiums and shuts clubs and bars just weeks after they had reopened as the country sees a daily record of 240 new infections.

- China cools on sports events - China will not hold most international sporting events for the rest of 2020 as part of measures to stop the spread of the virus, the government says, dealing a potential blow to the likes of Formula One and tennis.