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The United States topped four million coronavirus cases Thursday, amid a surge in cases, predominantly in the southern and western states.
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The death toll in Iran increased more than 15,000 when 2,621 people tested positive in the past 24 hours.
- Papua New Guinea has called for emergency assistance to WHO, fearful that it may face widespread community transmission of the disease.
- More than 15.4 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and at least 8.7 million people have recovered, while more than 631,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Here are the updates:
Friday, July 24
04:32 GMT – USA: Man arrested for pulling out a gun when asked to wear a mask
A man was arrested in the United States for pointing a gun at a shopping colleague who asked him to wear a mask due to the coronavirus pandemic at a Walmart store in the state of Florida, according to police.
Vincent Scavetta, 28, was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and improper display of a firearm, the Palm Beach sheriff’s office said.
“Welcome to PBC Jail, son. Let this be a lesson. It could have ended badly,” the office wrote on Twitter.
The man who pulled out a gun during a verbal altercation at @Walmart Royal Palm Beach has been arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and improper exposure of a firearm.
Welcome to PBC Jail, son. Let this be a lesson. It could have ended badly. pic.twitter.com/Sx13OZ9i4j
– PBSO (@PBCountySheriff) July 23, 2020
03:47 GMT – Costa Rica gets $ 300 million loan
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration approved a $ 300 million loan to Costa Rica to help stabilize the local economy, which has been hard hit by restrictions aimed at containing the new coronavirus.
Street protests sparked by the economic impact of the virus erupted this week in the Latin American country, where the virus killed 80 people and infected 13,129.
03:18 GMT – China reports 21 new cases, including 13 in Xinjiang
China reported 21 new cases of coronavirus on the continent as of July 23, up from 22 cases the previous day.
Of the new infections, the National Health Commission said 13 were in western Xinjiang region and two were in Dalian city, northeast Liaoning province. The remaining six were imported cases.
A medical worker collects a swab from a man in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, on July 19, 2020 [CNS photo via Reuters]
02:53 GMT – Disney postpones ‘Mulan’ debut, delays ‘Avatar’ and ‘Star Wars’
Walt Disney Co has postponed the debut of its movie “Mulan” indefinitely and delayed the next installments of two of its biggest franchises, “Avatar” and “Star Wars”, by one year.
“Mulan” was scheduled to hit theaters in March, but its release has been postponed multiple times as many theaters remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The film was slated to debut on August 21, and theater operators hoped it would help spark a rally in late summer to go to the movies.
The sequels to “Avatar” and “Star Wars”, which were delayed due to interruption of production, will now debut in theaters in December 2022 and December 2023, respectively.
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Thousands of US actors lose jobs amid crisis COVID-19 (2:42) |
02:27 GMT – Australia’s victory has the highest number of daily deaths
Australia’s second most populous state, Victoria, said six people died from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number since the pandemic began.
Victoria had reported five deaths a day earlier. The state recorded 300 new infections on Friday compared to 403 cases the day before.
02:00 GMT – S Africa closes schools amid the ‘coronavirus storm’
Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, said all public schools in the country will take a “short break” for four weeks amid the arrival of a “coronavirus storm.”
“This means that the schools will be closed from July 27 and will reopen on August 24,” he said during a briefing in Pretoria. There were some exceptions to sudden school closings with grade 12 teachers and students ready to return after a week of closing and grade 7 after just two weeks, he said.
South Africa now has the fifth largest number of coronavirus cases in the world. The total case load exceeded 400,000 on Thursday.
A member of the South African Army speaks to a man during a patrol as the night curfew is re-imposed in Johannesburg, South Africa [Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters]
01:47 GMT – Turkish parliament gives Erdogan the authority to extend the layoff ban
Turkey’s parliament passed a law allowing President Tayyip Erdogan to extend a firing ban imposed to combat the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The firing ban was first imposed in April for three months. With the new law, Erdogan will be able to extend the ban for three months each time until June 30, 2021.
Another section of the law authorizes Erdogan to decide for each sector whether to extend the Short Wage Benefit, a system that provides additional wages to employees whose hours are shortened.
01:08 GMT – US deaths exceed 1,000 for third consecutive day
The United States recorded more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Thursday, marking the third consecutive day the nation passed that grim milestone as the pandemic escalates in the southern and western states.
Deaths across the country were recorded at 1,014, and not all states reported. The deaths were 1,135 on Wednesday and 1,141 on Tuesday.
Despite deaths rising for the second week in a row, they remain well below levels seen in April, when an average of 2,000 people a day died from the virus.
00:30 GMT – Trump cancels Republican convention in Florida
United States President Donald Trump scrapped plans for a four-night Republican National Convention celebration in Jacksonville, Florida, which had been scheduled to attract more than 10,000 people to a pandemic point to mark his renomination.
“The timing for this event is not the right one,” Trump said at a press conference at the White House. “It just isn’t right with what happened recently, the outbreak in Florida. To have a big convention, this is not the right time.”
He said he ordered his aides to cancel the event “to protect the American people.”
Republican delegates would still meet in Charlotte, North Carolina, the convention’s original venue, in the week beginning August 24, Trump said.
Read more here.
00:11 GMT – The US Guard Dog Finds a Defective Virus Response in California Prison
A federal prison complex in the U.S. state of California struggled to stem the spread of the coronavirus due to understaffing, limited use of home confinement and ineffective detection, according to a watchdog.
In a new report, the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General said two staff members at the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facility in Lompoc, California, came to work in late March despite experiencing coronavirus symptoms Although those symptoms were undetected during detection.
Authorities in March were also unable to evaluate or isolate an inmate who reported that he had started having symptoms two days earlier. The inmate then tested positive at a hospital. In mid-July, four inmates had died and more than 1,000 had tested positive.
Lompoc, which has four facilities, houses some 2,700 low, minimum and medium security inmates.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continued coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I am Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives.
You can find all the key developments from yesterday, July 23, here.
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