MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th August, 2020) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 702,000, over 18.6 million cases of infection were detected, and almost 11.2 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 Wednesday, the number of cases globally is 18,614,542, including 702,330 fatalities.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 4,793,950, including 157,416 fatalities and 1,528,979 recoveries.
The Swiss authorities have excluded Russia from the list of countries with an unfavorable epidemiological situation and canceled the requirement for those arriving from Russia to observe a 10-day quarantine, effective on Saturday, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) said.
A UK cross-party parliamentary committee said in a report that the government's failure to impose special border measures at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic was a "serious mistake" that led to many more people contracting the coronavirus.
Schools should be closed last if the second wave of COVID-19 infections forces the government to impose local or national lockdowns in the future, the Children's Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, said.
Queensland's Chief Health Officer declared the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) a hotspot of COVID-19, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk saidy, adding that the state's border with the region will be closed over the weekend to prevent the spread of infections.
Virgin Atlantic, a London-based carrier partly owned by US-based Delta Air Lines, has filed for bankruptcy protection in a New York court, business Insider reported.
The Walt Disney Company revealed that it had lost $4.7 billion in its third quarter of the fiscal year.
The budget of Belarus may receive $1.6 billion less than planned in 2020 due to the situation with oil and the slowdown in economic growth amid the coronavirus pandemic, Finance Minister Yuri Seliverstov said.
Minsk is planning to conclude a loan agreement worth an initial $20 million with the OPEC Fund for International Development to help finance the country's anti-coronavirus measures, Deputy Finance Minister Andrei Belkovets said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains a close contact with the Russian authorities on the prequalification of a vaccine against the COVID-19 currently being developed in Russia, Communications Officer of WHO Regional Office for Europe Catharina de Kat told Sputnik.
An experimental novel coronavirus vaccine produced by US biotechnology company Moderna protected mice from contracting the disease, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said. Moderna said it was engaged in talks with several countries over vaccine supply.
Janssen, a subsidiary of US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson, will receive $1 billion from Operation Warp Speed to produce 100 million doses of the company's novel coronavirus vaccine candidate, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said.
The Canadian government has entered into an agreement with pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna to procure doses of their experimental COVID-19 vaccines, Minister of Public Services and Procurement Anita Anand said.
Japan's Kyushu University is developing a vaccine against the coronavirus based on the protein obtained from silkworm larva, the head of the project, Prof. Takahiro Kusakabe told Sputnik, expressing confidence that the product would be highly effective and inexpensive.
Three-in-five Canadians are concerned about the side-effects of a potential novel coronavirus vaccine, an Angus Reid Institute poll revealed.
