Latest On Coronavirus

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th July, 2020) The worldwide number of confirmed coronavirus cases has increased to 12,342,043, with the number of fatalities growing to 556,383, according to the Johns Hopkins University. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that cases had more than doubled in the last six weeks.

Several high-ranking officials across the world have tested positive for the coronavirus, including Bolivia's Interim President Jeanine Anez (who says she feels normal and will work in isolation), Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, and David Makhura, the premier of South Africa's financial hub Gauteng.

The United States is still leading the world in the number of coronavirus cases and fatalities, with the case count totaling 3,144,690 after a record 63,000 daily spike and the death toll amounting to 133,803, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Brazil, still ranking second, has recorded 42,619 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total count to 1,755,779, the Health Ministry said. The death toll has grown to 69,184.

India has confirmed 26,506 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of those infected having reached 793,802, the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Friday, adding that the death toll has increased to 21,604.

Russia has recorded 6,635 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours, which brings cumulative total to 713,936, the response center said Friday. The death toll has grown to 11,017. Russia's mortality rate grew by 11.9 percent in May, with the coronavirus and its effect on chronic conditions seen as the main reason behind the surge, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said.

The first COVID-19 case was recorded in Syria's northwest this week, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a press briefing on Friday.

The Chinese customs authority found COVID-19 on packages of frozen white South American prawns imported from Ecuador, Bi Kexin, the director of the food import and export safety bureau of the Chinese customs department, said on Friday.

The Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan warned its citizens about an outbreak of an unknown type of pneumonia with a higher mortality rate than COVID-19 spreading in the Central Asian nation.

The WHO believes that many of pneumonia cases detected in Kazakhstan will be confirmed as COVID-19 but will keep an open mind until confirmation, WHO Health Emergencies Program Executive Director Michael Ryan said on Friday.

WHO SPOKESWOMAN PRAISES RUSSIA'S RESPONSE

The second wave of the coronavirus may hit Russia "even tomorrow", if people lower their guard and do not pay enough attention to safety, WHO spokeswoman in Russia, Melita Vujnovic, told Sputnik in an interview.

At the same time Vujnovic noted that Russia's health care system had done everything possible to have enough resources available for providing treatment to all the coronavirus patients and was, therefore, ready for the possible second wave.

The spokeswoman also said that technical negotiations were underway on Russia's participation in the WHO Solidarity Trial on developing a vaccine against the coronavirus.

WHO LAUNCHES INITIATIVE TO HELP PEOPLE QUIT SMOKING AMID PANDEMIC

The WHO is launching a new project � the Access Initiative for Quitting Tobacco � that aims at helping over one billion people around the world quit smoking amid the coronavirus pandemic, Tedros said on Friday. Jordan will become the first country where the initiative will be launched.

The agency unveiled its "first-ever digital health worker based on artificial intelligence", Florence. The technology, which was developed by company Soul Machines, with support from Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, is said to provide users with information about tobacco and risks faced by smokers if they contract COVID-19, as well as helps to develop a customized quitting plan.

Australia will halve the number of international arrivals in all airports to ease pressure on COVID-19 quarantine systems across the country and to contain the spread of new infections, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, adding that the authorities will charge those quarantining in hotels after returning from abroad.

All Hong Kong schools will be closed again after a new surge in COVID-19 cases, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported on Friday, citing a medical source.

US states need to slow down their rush in reopening from COVID-19 lockdowns, although shutting their economies completely would not be the answer, the country's top pandemics expert Anthony Fauci said at a live-streamed event.

Russia will start lifting the restrictions on international flights on July 15, Golikova said on Friday. Epidemiologists believe Russia could resume flights to countries where COVID-19 incidence amounts to around 40 per 100,000 of the population, and the average daily growth in COVID-19 cases does not exceed 1 percent over the past 14 days. Golikova announced that foreign citizens arriving in Russia would have to present a medical certificate proving they are not infected with the coronavirus, which should be issued no earlier than three days prior to the arrival.

Key Moscow airports � Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo and Domodedovo � told Sputnik they were ready to resume handling of international flights.

The Greek authorities have decided to tighten control at the Promachonas border crossing with Bulgaria, the government's spokesman said on Friday, adding that only travelers with negative COVID-19 test results would be let inside the country starting Tuesday.

Authorities in the western Spanish region of Extremadura on Friday announced mandatory wearing of masks in public as the region continues to lift restrictions, becoming the third region to do so.

The Norwegian government on Friday announced lifting its COVID-19 travel restrictions to allow visitors from European countries with adequate infection levels to enter the country without being quarantined starting July 15.

At least 560 hotels in Lebanon have suspended operations amid the COVID-19 crisis and the ongoing worsening economic situation in the country, Pierre Achkar, chairman of the Lebanese Federation for Tourism and president of the Hotel Owners Association, said on Friday.

Canada's unemployment rate dropped in June after the economy added nearly one million jobs as it slowly emerges from the two-month novel coronavirus-induced shutdown, Statistics Canada said in its Labor Force Survey for June 2020 released on Friday.

Air pollution in UK cities and towns remains 30 percent below pre-lockdown levels despite the country's return to near-normal, a study cited by the Guardian newspaper said Friday.

It is necessary to create a special vaccine against the coronavirus for children, and relevant effort has just started, Anna Popova, the head of the Russian public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said.

Russia has started the final stage of testing the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology jointly with the Russian Defense Ministry, the latter said on Friday.

Remdesivir anti-viral drug has become the first coronavirus medication to be approved in Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration revealed.

A clinical study conducted by Fujita Health University showed that Avigan, a Japanese anti-flu drug, has failed to demonstrate effectiveness in treating COVID-19, the Kyodo news agency reported on Friday.

German biotechnological company BioNTech, which is cooperating with the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in developing a COVID-19 vaccine, expects that it will be ready to seek regulatory approval by the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing the company's CEO, Ugur Sahin.