The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Friday, with the total number of cases worldwide rising by 284,196 in 24 hours.
Deaths rose by 9,753 in the same period, the biggest such one-day increase since a record high of 9,797 deaths on April 30th.
The previous WHO record for new cases was 259,848 on July 18th. Deaths from the disease have averaged 5,000 a day in July, up from an average of 4,600 a day in June. On Friday, the WHO reported 69,641 new cases in the US, 67,860 in Brazil, 49,310 in India and 13,104 in South Africa.
More than 15.4 million cases of coronavirus have now been recorded worldwide, with more than 632,00 deaths, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.
The WHO is seeing intense transmission of the novel coronavirus in relatively few countries, its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Thursday. “Two-thirds of all cases are from 10 countries. Almost half of all cases reported so far are from just three countries.”
The coronavirus crisis could spark huge waves of fresh migration once borders reopen, the head of the Red Cross has warned.
The head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Jagan Chapagain, said he was deeply concerned about the secondary effects of the coronavirus pandemic, as border closures and Covid-19 restrictions have driven millions into poverty.
Mr Chapagain warned that the desperation being generated could have far-reaching consequences. “What we hear is that many people who are losing livelihoods, once the borders start opening, will feel compelled to move,” he said. “We should not be surprised if there is a massive impact on migration in the coming months and years.”
The following is a summary of the latest developments on the virus around the world:
US
The US on Thursday recorded more than 1,100 further deaths from Covid-19 for a third day in a row, as cases of the disease there surpassed 4 million, doubling over a span of six weeks after infections surged in Sun Belt states. US president Donald Trump has cancelled the Republican presidential convention in Jacksonville in Florida due to virus concerns. California reported record deaths on Thursday, while hospitalisations fell.
US health officials issued guidelines for reopening schools as districts across the country weigh whether to bring kids back amid the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Trump said that states that are currently coronavirus hot spots may need to delay reopening schools by a few weeks, but otherwise pushed for students to be able to return to classrooms en masse in the autumn.
Australia
Australia’s Victoria state will send in the army to question people who have tested positive for Covid-19 as it battles to control an outbreak that claimed a record number of lives on Friday. Victoria, Australia’s second most populous state, said on Friday that six people had died from coronavirus in the last 24 hours, its highest such daily toll since the pandemic began. Three people in their 80s and three in their 90s died from the virus overnight, state premier Daniel Andrews told a media briefing in Melbourne. Victoria had reported five deaths a day earlier. The state also recorded 300 new infections, compared with 403 new cases a day earlier.
Americas
Mexico’s cases rose by a daily record of 8,438 on Thursday. Deaths there climbed by 718, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University showed. Despite the record rise in cases, health officials have maintained that the spread of the virus is slowing in much of the country. Yet Mexico overtook Italy last week to have the world’s fourth-most virus deaths. Mexico has now recorded a total of 370,712 confirmed cases, with 41,908 fatalities overall.
Bolivia’s general election will be pushed back until October 18th as the pandemic grips the South American nation.
Asia
South Korea may report more than 100 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, a government official told a news briefing on Friday, after registering 41 more cases for the previous 24 hours. South Korea, one of the first countries to allow professional sports to resume without fans in early May, will allow spectators to attend baseball games from July 26th. Fans, limited to 10 per cent of the stadium’s capacity, will be required to wear masks and sit at least a seat apart and will be prohibited from eating food in the stands. Once the second-worst-hit country in the pandemic, South Korea now ranks among the countries with the lowest rate of cases and fatalities.
A 103-year-old man has recovered from Covid-19 in Pakistan to become one of the oldest survivors of the disease in the world, his relatives and doctors said. Aziz Abdul Alim, a resident of a village in the mountainous northern district of Chitral, was released last week from a makeshift emergency response centre after testing positive in early July.
A carpenter until his 70s, Alim has outlived three wives and nine sons and daughters, his son said.
Europe
The UK said it was guaranteeing £3.7 billion (€4.06 billion) of additional funding this year to be split between Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to allow the devolved governments there to plan their coronavirus response.
Britain’s official death toll from coronavirus reached 45,677 on Friday, an increase of 138 over the previous day. In an interview with the BBC on Friday evening, British prime minister Boris Johnson admitted that the government did not properly understand the virus in the early weeks of the pandemic and that there were lessons to be learned.
Belgium will tighten Covid-19 containment measures on July 25th after a rise in infections there.
Spain reported a cumulative total of 272,421 coronavirus cases on Friday, up 2,255 from the day before, Spanish health ministry data showed, with the figure including people who have recovered from the disease but whose antibody tests were taken now. In the past 24 hours, some 922 new infections were diagnosed in Spain, the ministry said, compared with 971 the previous day.
Amid a rise in new cases in Spain, France and Norway are taking measures to try to stop people returning from holidays abroad from spreading coronavirus. Norway has said it will reimpose a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving in the country from Spain from Saturday, while France advised people not to travel to the Spanish region of Catalonia. In Catalonia, 8,563 cases were diagnosed in the 14 days up to Thursday – almost half of the 17,842 detected throughout Spain in the period – despite guidelines for residents of regional capital Barcelona to stay at home.
Meanwhile, Germany said on Friday it will offer returning holidaymakers free coronavirus tests.
Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov has gone into quarantine after the head of his political office tested positive for coronavirus late on Thursday.
Africa and Middle East
Uganda has recorded its first death from the new coronavirus, making it one of the last nations in Africa to report a fatality since the pandemic reached it.
South African public schools will close for four weeks, South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa has said. All of the country’s schools were closed in March when the government introduced one of the world’s strictest lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus. Since they reopened on June 1st, teachers’ labour unions and some members of the public have urged the government to close them again.
The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in South Africa doubled over the past 17 days to surpass 400,000. The government has forecast that the country is expected to reach its peak infection rate in the coming weeks.
Baghdad International Airport reopened for scheduled commercial flights after months of closure, as Iraq’s total number of infections passed 100,000.
At least 97 Yemeni healthcare workers have died from Covid-19 as the disease ravages the war-torn country, according to a report that gives an insight into the true scale of Yemen’s poorly documented outbreak.
Yemen, already suffering from a five-year war that has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, has proved uniquely vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the data published by the medical charity MedGlobal on Thursday.
Yemen’s official total number of cases is 1,610, with 446 deaths, so the high number of healthcare worker casualties outlined by the report suggests the true caseload and mortality figure is far higher. Yemen currently has a 27 per cent mortality rate from the disease – more than five times the global average. In a country where half of all medical facilities are out of action, and aid funding shortfalls are exacerbating the existing malnutrition and cholera crises, the loss of just one medical professional has a devastating exponential effect. About 18 per cent of the country’s 333 districts already have no doctors.–PA, Reuters, Guardian, Bloomberg