SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 20 - CORONAVIRUS GLOBAL UPDATE

 in-cyprus 20 September 2020 - by Maria Bitar

More than 30.55 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 951,051 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.

As European countries introduce new restrictions to curb a sharp resurgence in the number of coronavirus infections, Britain says it is considering hefty fines for people who fail to obey self-isolation rules.

EUROPE

* People in England who break new rules requiring them to self-isolate if they have been in contact with someone infected with COVID-19 will face a fine of up to 10,000 pounds ($12,914), Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday.

* More than a thousand people gathered in central London on Saturday to protest against lockdown measures, before the event was broken up by police.

* Russia reported 6,148 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the second straight day when the daily number of cases exceeded 6,000, taking the national tally of infections to 1,103,399.

* Innkeepers in Munich tapped their barrels on Saturday for revellers determined to make the most of a scaled-down Oktoberfest after the world’s biggest beer festival was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

* France reported 13,498 new confirmed COVID-19 cases over the previous 24 hours, setting another record in daily additional infections since the start of the epidemic.

* Resurgent coronavirus cases in Turkey are fuelling tensions between doctors who say the official figures underplay the scale of the outbreak and politicians who accuse the country’s medical association of undermining efforts to contain it.

* The regional government of the Spanish capital Madrid ordered a lockdown from Monday in some of the poorer areas of the city and its outskirts that are home to about 850,000 people.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* India’s coronavirus case tally surged to 5.4 million as it added 92,605 new infections in the last 24 hours, data from the federal health ministry showed on Sunday.

* Australia looked set to record its lowest daily increase in new coronavirus cases in three months on Sunday as a hard lockdown in the city of Melbourne brought the country’s virus epicentre down sharply.

* South Korea reported 82 new coronavirus cases as of midnight Saturday, the lowest daily infections since mid-August, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday.

AMERICAS

* Canada’s most populous province is cracking down on private social gatherings as COVID-19 cases surge, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a surprise news conference called on Saturday.

* The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday reported 6,706,374 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 49,575 cases from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 983 to 198,099.

* Brazil and Argentina, Latin American nations seeking more time to commit to the global COVID-19 vaccine facility known as COVAX, said they intend to so as soon as possible after missing Friday’s deadline.

* Mexico’s health ministry on Saturday reported 5,167 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the country, bringing the total to 694,121 cases, and 455 new deaths, for a cumulative death toll of 73,258.

* Brazil recorded 33,057 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 739 deaths from the disease, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Morocco signed a deal with Russia’s R-Pharm to buy a COVID-19 vaccine produced under a licence from Britain’s AstraZeneca, the health ministry said, as its total number of cases approached 100,000.

* Israel entered a second nationwide lockdown at the onset of the Jewish high-holiday season, forcing residents to stay mostly at home amid a resurgence in new coronavirus cases.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Moderna Inc said it was on track to produce 20 million doses of its experimental coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, while maintaining its goal of readying 500 million to 1 billion doses in 2021.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Germany would relax insolvency rules under proposals set out on Saturday to help avert a wave of bankruptcies in Europe’s biggest economy, provided companies hit by the coronavirus crisis have a robust business model.

* Global equity markets slid as investors sought direction after this week’s U.S. Federal Reserve meeting and a jump in coronavirus cases in Europe rattled sentiment, while gold rose and safe-haven buying lifted the Japanese yen.