What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

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[June 22, 2020]  (Reuters) - Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

Single largest daily increase in cases

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a record increase in global infections on Sunday, with the total rising by 183,020 in a 24-hour period.

The biggest increase, of more than 116,000, was from North and South America, it said in a daily report. Total global cases have passed 8.7 million with more than 461,000 deaths, the WHO added.

(Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.)

Beijing's efforts

Officials in the Chinese capital are running tests on tens of thousands of food and parcel delivery workers to detect virus traces in a bid to rein in a new outbreak, state-backed media said on Saturday. All couriers in the city would be tested by next week, Beijing News said.

The city is capable of screening almost 1 million people a day for the coronavirus, an official said on Sunday. The tests are done on multiple samples collected in one test tube, Gao Xiaojun, a spokesman for city health authorities, told reporters.

China's customs authority said it had suspended imports of poultry products from a plant in Springdale, Arizona owned by U.S.-based meat processor Tyson Inc that has been hit by the virus. China has stepped up oversight of imported foods after a new cluster of cases was linked to a sprawling wholesale food market in its capital just over a week ago.

Rising contagion

Germany's coronavirus reproduction rate jumped to 2.88 on Sunday, up from 1.79 a day earlier, health authorities said, a rate that shows infections are rising above the level needed to contain the disease over the longer term.

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The rise strengthens prospects for renewed curbs on activity in Europe's largest economy, which would be a blow to a country until now widely seen as successful in reining in the spread and holding down the death toll.

Australia's second-most populous state of Victoria extended a state of emergency for four more weeks until July 19, as it battles a spike in infections with a pick-up in community transmission.



(To see the whole suite of interactive graphics on the coronavirus, open https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-GRAPHICS/0100B5CD3DP/index.html in external browser)

Come together

International music and film stars will headline a globally televised and streamed fundraising concert on Saturday, aiming to raise billions of dollars in private and public donations to mitigate the pandemic's impact on marginalised communities.

Hosted by actor Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson, the virtual concert will feature Cyrus, Chloe x Halle, Christine and the Queens, Coldplay and Shakira besides actors Charlize Theron and Hugh Jackman as well as retired soccer star David Beckham.

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen said the concert would coincide with a pledging summit at which artists, scientists and world leaders will "commit to helping the world end coronavirus, while leaving no one behind".

(Compiled by Karishma Singh; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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