The World Health Organization reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Sunday, with the total rising by 183,020 in a 24-hour period.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* More than 8.85 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally and 467,390 have died, a Reuters tally showed as of 0400 GMT on Sunday.
* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, click here.
EUROPE
* Prime Minister Boris Johnson will unveil the latest easing of Britain’s coronavirus lockdown on Tuesday when he will also announce the conclusion of a review into whether a two-metre rule on social distancing should be relaxed.
* Police in The Hague said they detained some 400 people on Sunday after demonstrators refused to leave a protest against the Dutch government’s social-distancing measures.
* Passengers wearing masks and wheeling suitcases arrived at Madrid’s main airport and French people crossed the border to buy bargain alcohol and tobacco as Spain opened its borders to most European countries and ended a state of emergency.
* Authorities in Germany’s Goettingen and North Rhine Westphalia regions have called on police to enforce quarantine measures following a rise in local infections.
* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 537 to 190,359, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Monday.
AMERICAS
* Brazil, the world’s No. 2 coronavirus hot spot after the United States, officially passed 50,000 coronavirus deaths on Sunday, a blow for a country already grappling with more than 1 million cases, rising political instability and a crippled economy.
* Mexico on Sunday reported 5,343 new infections and 1,044 additional deaths from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the health ministry said.
* Mexico will resume sending temporary farmworkers to Canada after the two countries reached an agreement on improved safety protections for laborers on Canadian farms during the pandemic.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Thailand on Monday reported three new coronavirus cases, all imported, marking 28 days without local transmission.
* China reported 18 new coronavirus cases for June 21, nine of which were in the capital Beijing, the National Health Commission said on Monday.
* The Chinese capital is capable of screening almost 1 million people a day for the coronavirus, an official said, as testing continued across the city to try to contain the spread of a fresh outbreak.
* Australia’s second most populous state Victoria extended its state of emergency for four more weeks to July 19, as it battles a spike in infections.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Saudi Arabia will end a nationwide curfew and lift restrictions on businesses from Sunday morning after three months of lockdown, state news agency SPA quoted a source in the interior ministry as saying.
* Morocco will further loosen lockdown measures for the services sector and domestic transport starting June 24, the government said.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Shionogi & Co Ltd said it is partnering with Japanese universities to develop a saliva test for coronavirus that can yield visual results in 25 minutes.
* India’s drug regulator has given Hetero Labs and Cipla Ltd the green light to manufacture and market their generic version of Gilead Sciences Inc’s experimental COVID-19 treatment remdesivir, the Indian pharmaceutical companies said.
* The U.S. National Institutes of Health said it has halted a clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
* China is expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged for the second straight month at its June fixing on Monday, a Reuters survey of traders and analysts found, after the central bank kept the borrowing cost of medium-term loans steady this week.
* China’s auto sales are expected to fall between 10% and 20% this year, from over 25 million units sold in 2019, an industry body said.
* Germany’s economy had passed the worst of the crisis caused by the pandemic and was now expected to recover gradually, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
(Reuters)
Pictured: A man sprays hand sanitizer to a child who is traveling on a public bus amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 22, 2020. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
