-
The French Ministry of Health reported more than 2500 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, setting a new post-lockdown daily high for the third day in a row, bringing the country’s cumulative total to 249,611.
-
An Australian investigation into the virus-infected Ruby Princess cruise ship sei health officials made a “serious and material error” in allowing passengers to disembark.
-
Worldwide, coronavirus cases accounted for 21 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, while more than 13 million people have recovered. More than 763,000 people have died.
Here are the latest updates:
Saturday, August 15th
07:14 GMT – Ukraine sees new record high today
Ukraine has registered 1,847 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, officials said, setting a new daily record for infections in the country – which sees cases increase sharply after reducing some COVID-19 restrictions.
The figure given by the National Security and Defense Council above the previous one-day record of 1,732 reported on Friday.
Total cases reached 89,719, including 2,044 deaths.
Infections have been on the rise since June as authorities have imposed some restrictions allowing cafes, churches and public transport to reopen.
06:12 GMT – India cases cross 2.5 million with another jump
India’s confirmed cases of coronavirus have surpassed 2.5 million with another biggest one – day spike of 65,002 in the past 24 hours.
India is behind the United States and Brazil in the number of cases.
The Ministry of Public Health on Saturday also reported another 996 deaths for a total of 49,036.
Two-month security in India late nationally in late March kept infections low. But it is required and is now largely enforced in high-risk areas [Bikas Das/AP]
The average daily reported cases jumped from about 15,000 in the first week of July to more than 50,000 at the beginning of August.
The Ministry of Health said the turnout shows the extent of testing with 800,000 performed in a day. But experts say India needs to test harder.
04:55 GMT – New Zealand outbreak is growing
New Zealand reported seven new cases of COVID-19 as a lockdown in the country’s largest city, Auckland, was extended following the first outbreak of the Pacific nation in months.
Six of the seven new cases have been linked to the cluster responsible for all previous community cases, while one case was being investigated, Health Director General Ashley Bloomfield told a media briefing in Wellington.
The new cases bring the total infection of New Zealand since the beginning of the year to 1258, while the number of currently active cases stands at 56. Twenty people have died so far.
04:21 GMT – The caseload of Latin America is over 6 million
Cases of Coronavirus in Latin America have exceeded 6 million and remain accelerating, according to a Reuters census, as most of its peoples begin to relax lockdown measures.
The region reached 6,000,005 confirmed cases by Friday night and 237,360 deaths. That accounts for just under one-third of the world’s total business tax and a comparable share of reported pandemic deaths.
The climb from 5 million to 6 million cases took 11 days, one day less than it took to reach the previous million.
Latin America is the region of the world least affected by the pandemic, reporting an average of more than 86,000 daily infections and more than 2,600 deaths in the last seven days.
03:47 GMT – China reports 22 new cases
Health authorities in China reported 22 new cases of coronavirus on the mainland before August 14, compared to 30 cases a day earlier.
Of the new infections, 14 were imported and the locally transmitted cases included seven in the extreme western region of Xinjiang and one in Guangdong province.
On Friday, a shopping mall in Shenzhen, a city in Guangdong, was sealed after a COVID-19 case was confirmed there. Shenzhen Health Authority said later in the day that two positive cases had been found, both of which were working in the mall at the Alibaba supermarket Freshippo.
Freshippo said in a separate statement that it had stopped operations at 21 of its stores in Shenzhen to carry out disinfection work and nucleic acid tests for its employees.
Medical workers wearing protective clothing are seen at a nucleic acid test site outside the IBC Mall in Shenzhen, after a worker was confirmed to have COVID-19 [David Kirton/ Reuters]
03:13 GMT – Victoria’s Australia reports 303 new cases
The Australian state of Victoria continued to lay the curve flat in its wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths, reporting four more deaths and 303 new cases in the past 24 hours.
It was the second-lowest daily figure in Victoria this month after 278 cases on Thursday.
Victoria daily numbers are slowly declining, with the seven-day average to 344 from 521 a week ago. But authorities warn more progress is needed before security restrictions in the city of Melbourne can be imposed.
“We could not imagine opening 200 cases a day. We could not do it with 100 cases a day. We have to go to the lowest number,” said Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.
|
101 EAST | Night Cruise Ship of Australia (23:48) |
02:45 GMT – South Korea’s cases resurface
South Korea reported 166 newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the highest daily jump in five months, amid fears that transmissions were under control in the greater capital area.
The figures announced by the South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) brought the national caseload to 15,039, including 305 deaths.
The KCDC said 155 of the new infections were transmitted locally, mostly from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, where authorities dived to close thousands of churches that have emerged as a major source of COVID-19. fallen. Many of them had failed to properly maintain preventative measures, allowing worshipers to take off their masks, sing in choirs, or eat together at dinners.
Other clusters are tied to nursing homes, schools, restaurants, outdoor markets and door-to-door vendors.
02:29 GMT – Top official says coronavirus has peaked in Mexico
Hugo Lopez-Gatell, Mexico’s point guard for the coronavirus pandemic, said he thinks the country has reached its peak of infections in the last three weeks.
“We now have a maximum point in the curve,” the assistant health secretary said, while also predicting that second waves of infections around the world will continue.
“This is a phenomenon that will be with us for several years around the world,” he said.
Lopez-Gatell had previously incorrectly predicted that infections would peak in May and June.
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Mexico is up with 5,618 on Friday to reach 511.369. The health department reported 615 newly confirmed deaths from COVID-19, bringing the country’s total deaths to 55,908.
|
COVID-19 vaccine: Security concerns as countries rush to cure (1:57) |
01:37 GMT – Paris expands masking requirements for pedestrians
The capital of France, Paris, is expanding the areas of the city where pedestrians will be required to wear masks from Saturday morning.
The Champs-Elysees Avenue and the area around the Louvre Museum belong to zones where masks will be required, and police checks to ensure respect for mask wear in designated areas should be strengthened.
Bars and restaurants could be ordered closed if distancing and other barriers to virus transmission are not respected, health officials said.
00:20 GMT – California covers 600,000 cases, mostly in the US
California became the first state in the United States to cover 600,000 cases of COVID-19 on Friday, although Governor Gavin Newsom said he was encouraged to see hospitalizations deviate by 20 percent in the past two weeks and allow to ICU departments were down 14 percent in the same period.
“The number that really matters to us is that positivity rate,” he said when asked about the state’s caseload. The positivity rate – the number of confirmed infections as a percentage of tests done – has dropped from 7 percent to 6 percent in the past 14 days, Newsom said.
“I will not do any more tests because I’m scared [more cases],” he said.
Karla Funderburk, artist and owner of Matter Studio Gallery, stands among some of the thousands of origami cranes hanging during an exhibition in honor of the victims of COVID-19 in Los Angeles, USA on Tuesday, August 11, 2020 [Richard Vogel/ AP]
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives.
Go here for all the major developments from yesterday 14th August.
.
