- Worldwide coronavirus cases have exceeded 20 million, with Brazil and Mexico reporting a combined 27,000 infections in just one day. More than 12.2 million have been recovered, and nearly 735,000 have died from the disease, according to the Johns Hopkins University census.
- US President Donald Trump is considering a measure to allow US citizens and permanent residents to enter the country if they are suspected of being infected with the new coronavirus, according to the New York Times and Reuters News Agency.
- Australia’s second most populous state, Victoria, reported 19 new coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours and 331 new cases on Tuesday.
- India has recorded more than 2.2 million infections – the third highest number of cases next to the US and Brazil.
Here are the latest updates:
Tuesday, August 11th
04:40 GMT – Incoming UN President praises Pakistan’s response to pandemic
Volkan Bozkir, the incoming president of the United Nations General Assembly, praised Pakistan for the rapid recovery of the coronavirus, and said that the South Asian nation’s treatment of the pandemic is a good example for the world, according to AP agency AP.
The Turkish diplomat was recently elected president of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.
Bozkir’s visit to Islamabad comes amid a slow decline in COVID-19 deaths and infections in Pakistan.
Pakistan on Monday reported 15 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, increasing its total COVID-19-related deaths to 6,097. It has a total of more than 284,000 cases.
04:20 GMT – Hong Kong reports another coronavirus death; death toll at 56
An elderly man has died of coronavirus infection at a Hong Kong hospital, causing the deaths of the semi-autonomous city to 56.
According to the South China Morning Post on Tuesday, the 79-year-old patient has been admitted to the hospital since July 27. He had some medical conditions before he became infected with COVID-19.
As of Monday, Hong Kong has recorded at least 4,148 coronavirus infections.
As of Monday, Hong Kong has recorded at least 4,148 coronavirus infections and 56 deaths [File: Tyrone Siu/Reuters]
04:00 GMT – Papua New Guinea to cancel unveiling despite rise in COVID-19 cases
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape is pushing ahead with plans to remove Pacific lockdown measures this week, even as a recent sharp spike in coronavirus infections has plagued health officials, according to the news agency Reuters.
Marape said a two-week lockdown in the capital Port Moresby would be lifted from Wednesday, despite the country’s reported cases of COVID-19 doubling in the past week.
“While the spread is there, we need to adapt to living with COVID-19 this year, instead of taking drastic measures,” Marape told a news conference on Monday.
PNG had a total of 214 cases and three deaths as of Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported, up from 104 cases and one death the previous week. More concerned, WHO said it was likely that real infection rates were much higher, given low rates of testing across the country.
03:30 GMT – New Zealand pension house in lockdown to test for COVID-19
A New Zealand retirement village has been shut down after residents experienced symptoms of respiratory failure, the New Zealand Herald reported on Tuesday.
The retirement village of Village Palms in Christchurch advised about locking up in a letter to family members on Tuesday, the newspaper said. No further details were immediately available.
New Zealand, which has managed to contain much of the spread of the coronavirus, has gone more than 100 days without COVID-19 communications.
02:55 GMT – ‘Land of COVID-19’? Philippines protests Thai headline
The Philippine government has sent a letter of protest to a Bangkok-based newspaper over a headline calling the country the “country of COVID-19”, after it recorded the largest number of coronavirus cases in the East Asia region.
In a letter to Thai Rath editor-in-chief Saravut Vacharaphol, Philippine Consul General to Thailand Val Simon Roque said the description was “unfavorable, unhealthy and useless”.
In an August 8 report, Thai Rath said 165 Filipino teachers arrived in Bangkok from the “land of COVID-19”. Thousands of Filipino teachers are working in Thailand to fill their shortage in the education field.
The Philippines recorded 136,638 cases and nearly 2,300 deaths as of Monday. The number of cases tops the entire region in East Asia and runs 22 worldwide.
02:20 GMT – Greece reports 126 new cases, Museum of Athens confirmed closed
Greece has confirmed at least 126 new coronavirus infections, pushing the country’s total to 5,749 with at least 213 deaths.
According to the government, 17 of the new cases involved migrants in Lesbos, who came from Turkey.
Meanwhile, the country’s Ministry of Culture announced in the next two weeks that the Museum of the Ancient Agora in Athens will be closed for disinfection after one of its workers tested positive for the disease, also known as COVID-19.
01:48 GMT – South Korea reports 34 new COVID-19 cases
South Korea’s new coronavirus cases rebounded to above 30 on Tuesday because an uptick in traced infections by church shows no signs of letup, according to news agency Yonhap.
The country identified an additional 34 virus cases, including 23 domestic infections, which increased the total caseload to 14,660, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
There were no new reported deaths for the second consecutive day, keeping the death toll at 305.
Amid continuing concerns over the spread of the coronavirus, South Korean students gathered in Seoul’s capital on Monday to protest against the US-South Korea alliance and common military drills [Kim Chul-soo/EPA]
01:30 GMT – Drug company sees 500-600 million doses of vaccine by 2021
The US-listed pharmaceutical company, Novavax Inc, said its production capacity is sufficient to meet US demand for COVID-19 vaccines by 2021, according to reports.
Managers of the company said the demand for faxes could be as high as 500 million to 600 million doses.
Last week, Novavax said its experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced high levels of antibodies to COVID, according to initial data from a small, early-stage clinical trial.
Novavax generally expects to produce more than 2 billion doses of its vaccine annually, the executives told reporters.
01:10 GMT – UK 6,000 COVID-19 contacts
The UK government has fired 6,000 coronavirus contacts and deployed the rest to work in local teams, in recognition that the centralized track-and-trace system is not working well enough, reports AP news agency AP.
The United Kingdom has been criticized for failing to make contact with infected people early in the pandemic, a factor that has contributed to the country’s high death toll of more than 46,500, the most in Europe.
The national test-and-trace program said it had officially adopted this local approach. Some 6,000 contacts will be fired this month, and the remaining 12,000 will work with local public health authorities around the country.
00:47 GMT – Mexico reports more than 5,500 new cases, 705 deaths
At least 5,558 new cases of coronavirus and 705 extra deaths have been reported in Mexico, bringing the total to 485,836 cases and 53,003 deaths in the country, according to Reuters news agency.
The country’s health ministry said the actual number of infected people is likely to be higher than the confirmed cases.
00:20 GMT – Brazil records 22,048 new cases of coronavirus and 703 new deaths
Brazil has registered 22,048 new cases of coronavirus and 703 deaths, the Reuters news agency reported, citing the health ministry.
Overall, Brazil now has 3,057,470 confirmed cases, while the death toll has risen to 101,752.
00:05 GMT – Trump refuses to block U.S. citizens coming home if coronavirus infection was feared
The administration of US President Donald Trump is considering a measure to block US citizens and permanent residents from returning home if they are suspected of being infected with the new coronavirus, according to the New York Times and Reuters News Agency.
The draft regulation would allow the government to block individuals who could be “reasonably” believed to have contracted COVID-19 or other diseases.
Trump has imposed a series of sweeping immigration restrictions since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, halting legal immigration and allowing U.S. border authorities to deport migrants caught at the border without standard legal proceedings.
00:01 GMT – Australia reports 331 new cases, 19 dead
Australia’s second-most popular state on Tuesday reported 19 new coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours and 331 new cases, according to Reuters News Agency.
The state reported 322 infections and 19 deaths, its largest rise of one day in casualties, a day earlier.
Victoria began last week with a total session of six weeks, closing shops and businesses to contain a second wave of infections that require its five million inhabitants to stay at home.
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Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Ted Regencia in Kuala Lumpur.
Go here for all the major developments from yesterday 10th August.
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