Latest On Coronavirus

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st August, 2020) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 675,000, over 17.4 million cases of infection were detected, and almost 10.2 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 19:30 GMT Friday, the number of people infected globally is 17,401,496, of them 675,167 died.

The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 4,536,240, including 152,878 fatalities and 1,414,155 recoveries.

A record high 292,527 COVID-19 cases have been recorded across the world over the past 24 hours, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

Japan has once again exceeded its maximum daily increase of COVID-19 cases with more than 1,500 new patients, the NHK broadcaster reported.

Vietnam on Friday recorded first two deaths from COVID-19 within the country, tarnishing its heretofore clear record, state media Vietnam news reported.

Foreigners arriving in Russian must have a certificate of COVID-19 negative status already upon boarding the plane, including during transit via Russia, according to a decree of chief state sanitary doctor published on legal information portal.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the next stage of England's COVID-19 economic reopening, which would have seen ice skating rinks, casinos, and bowling alleys reopen, has been postponed for two weeks due to the rising number of coronavirus disease cases.

The Robert Koch Institute, Germany's responsible agency for the pandemic monitoring and control, included the Spanish regions of Catalonia, Aragon and Navarre on its list of international high-risk travel destinations with unfavorable epidemiological environment.

Denmark became the first Nordic nation to recommend the use of face masks in packed public transport after recording the highest weekly increase since early May.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte extended on Friday the general community quarantine (GCQ) in Manila and the surrounding areas, officially known as the National Capital Region (NCR), and 12 other territories until August 15.

The Canadian economy is estimated to have contracted by 12 percent in the second quarter despite a modest rebound in May, the country's statistics agency said.

The Spanish economy contracted by 18.5 percent in the second quarter of 2020, a time during which most coronavirus quarantine measures were in effect, compared to the previous three months, marking the largest quarter-on-quarter drop since record-keeping began in 1970, the country's National Statistics Institute said.

France's GDP plunged by 13.8 percent in April-June of 2020, which marks the country's economy continuous recession attributed to the coronavirus outbreak and related health crisis, the INSEE statistics agency reported.

The passage of a new $1 trillion coronavirus relief bill is being held up by disagreements on whether weekly benefits for the unemployed should remain at $600 per person or be cut to a third as the Trump administration hopes, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that the Legislative Council elections scheduled for September 6 would be postponed over the COVID-19 threat.

A flurry of US contracts for promising novel coronavirus vaccine candidates, including a $2.1 billion deal with Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline announced on Friday, aims to increase the probability that at least one vaccine will be ready for mass distribution by the end of 2020, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said.

The US government's Operation Warp Speed partnership has chosen the vaccine candidate developed jointly by France's Sanofi and UK's GSK pharmaceutical companies as the subject to funding the production and delivery of 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the US, Sanofi announced.

The Japanese government and the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have reached a deal on deliveries of a COVID-19 vaccine, media reported, citing Japanese Health Minister Kato Katsunobu. According to the NHK broadcaster, the deal envisages that if Pfizer succeeds in developing the vaccine, about 120 million doses for 60 million people will be delivered to Japan by June 2021, given that one person should be vaccinated twice.

�The United States aims to increase the availability and types of novel coronavirus tests with a $248.7 million investment in seven biotech firms, including three making tiny machines that yield results in as little as 15 minutes, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said.