SATURDAY AUGUST 15 - CORONAVIRUS GLOBAL UPDATE

 in-cyprus 15 August 2020 - by Annie Charalambous

More than 21.26 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 759,357​ have died, according to a Reuters tally.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

The latest developments are the following:

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

EUROPE

* Britain extended lockdown restrictions on regions of northwest England.

* British travellers rushed home from summer holidays in France, before a 14-day quarantine comes into force in response to rising infections there.

* Greece set a temporary 50-person limit on public gatherings and said restaurants and bars in Athens and other areas must close by midnight, as the country seeks to contain a recent spike in infections.

* Spain ordered nightlife establishments to close and banned drinking on the street in an effort to stem a coronavirus resurgence.

* Austria’s foreign ministry joined Italy in warning against travel to Croatia.

AMERICAS

* The United States is tying payments for COVID-19 vaccines to timing milestones for production and approval, according to public documents and a Trump administration official.

* Canada is planning for a “reasonable worst case scenario” in which new waves of the coronavirus would intermittently swamp the public health system and send the death toll soaring, officials said.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* An inquiry showed that health officials in Australia’s most populous state made “unjustifiable” and “inexcusable” mistakes that allowed cruise ship passengers with COVID-19 to disembark in March in central Sydney.

* Vietnam has registered to buy a Russian COVID-19 vaccine, as it fights a new outbreak after several months with no local cases.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Oman will end the ban on night movement starting from Aug. 15, the country’s supreme committee for dealing with COVID-19 announced on Twitter.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* U.S. government scientists have begun efforts to manufacture a strain of the coronavirus that could be used in human challenge trials of vaccines, a controversial type of study in which healthy volunteers would be vaccinated and then intentionally infected with the virus.

* The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said McKesson Corp would be the central distributor for future coronavirus vaccines.

* Britain will buy potential COVID-19 vaccines from U.S. drug makers Johnson & Johnson and Novavax Inc, the companies said.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

* The euro zone’s trade surplus with the rest of the world ballooned in June as the bloc’s drop in imports of goods outpaced the fall of exports. The bloc also suffered the biggest drop ever recorded in employment in the second quarter.

* U.S. retail sales increased less than expected in July and could slow further in the months ahead amid spiralling new infections and a reduction in unemployment benefit checks.