Coronavirus: latest global developments

409

PARIS, July 3, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Here are the latest developments in
the coronavirus crisis:

– Latin America passes Europe –

For the first time since the start of the pandemic, Latin America on
Friday passes Europe in number of cases with more than 2.73 million
officially declared infections.

– New US record cases ahead of July 4 –

Pandemic epicentre the United States posts a record 53,069 new daily cases.

Amid a surge of cases in southern and western states, Florida and
other so-called “Sun Belt” states have been forced to re-shut
restaurants, bars and beaches as the nation prepares for the
Independence Day weekend.

– EU authorises remdesivir –

The EU’s executive Commission authorises the use of anti-viral drug
remdesivir to treat the new coronavirus, in what it describes as “a
first medicine to treat COVID-19”.

It gave the green light following the advice of the European
Medicines Agency which has given its conditional authorisation for the
treatment of patients above 12 years of age who are suffering
pneumonia and require extra oxygen.

– England gives quarantine exemptions –

Travellers from more than 50 countries including France, Italy and
Spain — but not the United States — can stop self-isolating on
arrival in England from July 10, the UK government announces.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will each announce their own
separate rules depending on how they work in England.

– More than 521,000 dead –

The pandemic has killed at least 521,384 people worldwide since it
surfaced in China late last year, according to an AFP tally at 1100
GMT on Friday based on official sources.

The United States is the hardest-hit country with 128,740 deaths. It
is followed by Brazil with 61,884, Britain with 43,995, Italy with
34,818 and France with 29,875 fatalities.

Peru on Thursday passed the 10,000-death mark.

– North Korea remains closed –

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signals the country will keep its
borders closed for the foreseeable future and maintain tough isolation
measures, warning against the “hasty” relaxation of anti-coronavirus
measures, according to state media.

Pyongyang insists it has not had a single case of COVID-19, but
closed its borders in late January as the virus spread in neighbouring
China.

– Current COVID-19 more contagious –

The genetic variation of the novel coronavirus rampaging in the
world today is more contagious than the original that emerged in China
late last year, according to a new study published in the journal Cell
on Thursday.

The lab-based research suggests this current mutation is more
transmissible between people in the real world compared to the
previous iteration, but this yet to be proven.

– Football teams flee Melbourne –

Stadiums in Australia’s second city biggest Melbourne, which has
seen a flare up of coronavirus, have been abandoned by all 10 of its
Australian Rules teams who decide to temporarily relocate elsewhere
from the key hub for the country’s most popular spectator sport.