LDN - Health and Fitness

Factbox: Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

[June 24, 2020] (Reuters) - Millions of women and children in poor countries are at risk because the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting health services they rely on, from neonatal and maternity care to immunisations and contraception, a World Bank global health expert has warned.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

* More than 9.29 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 476,823 have died, a Reuters tally showed as of 1037 GMT on Wednesday.

* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.

* For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.

EUROPE

* A second wave is a real risk for the United Kingdom and local flare-ups are likely, major health bodies said on Wednesday, in one of the strongest warnings yet to Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he eases lockdown to help the economy.

* With impersonal anti-coronavirus masks rapidly becoming items of everyday use, a Belgian businessman decided it was time to give them a human face.

* Bulgaria will extend a state of emergency declared in response to the virus outbreak until July 15 after another jump in new registered cases, Health Minister Kiril Ananiev said on Wednesday.

* Austria has issued a warning against travel to the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia after a coronavirus outbreak at a meatpacking plant there, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Wednesday.

* Russia on Wednesday reported 7,176 new cases of the coronavirus, pushing its nationwide case total to 606,881, the world's third highest tally.

* Ukraine is opening more of its hospitals to coronavirus cases as the institutions initially chosen to accept patients no longer have enough beds to cope with a surge in infections, the health minister said on Wednesday.

AMERICAS

* The United States saw a 25% increase in new cases of COVID-19 in the week ended June 21, compared with the previous seven days, as Arizona, Florida and Texas experienced record surges in new infections, a Reuters analysis found.

* Colombia's lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus will continue until July 15.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Australia's second most populous state, Victoria, said on Wednesday a man in his 80s had died overnight from COVID-19, the country's first death from the virus in more than a month.

* The daily number of new coronavirus cases in Tokyo climbed to 55 on Wednesday, Governor Yuriko Koike said, the highest tally in 1-1/2 months after a cluster of infections was found at an unnamed office in the Japanese capital.

* Indonesian authorities complained on Wednesday that hundreds of people had refused testing for the virus as social taboos emerge as another obstacle to stopping its spread in the world’s fourth-most populous nation.

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* The pilots of a Pakistan airliner that crashed last month, killing 97 people, were distracted as they talked about the pandemic throughout the flight before an abortive landing bid, an initial inquiry report showed on Wednesday.

* Emirates, one of the world's biggest long-haul airlines, has suspended flights from Pakistan after passengers tested positive for coronavirus in Hong Kong.

* Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov missed a World War Two victory parade in Russia on Wednesday after two people who accompanied him on the flight to Moscow tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival, his office said.

* Kazakhstan has locked down two towns near its capital Nur-Sultan to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the surrounding province, the authorities said.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Egypt will from Saturday lift a night-time curfew that had been imposed since March 25, the prime minister's media adviser said.

* Saudi Arabia is to limit the number of domestic pilgrims attending the haj to around 1,000, after barring Muslims abroad from the rite for the first year in modern times.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Brazil is likely to sign a contract this week to produce a trial vaccine developed by Oxford University to guard against the novel coronavirus, the country's interim health minister Eduardo Pazuello said.

* South African drug company Aspen could provide 10 million dexamethasone tablets within a month, Chief Executive Stephen Saad told Reuters.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

* Gold prices surged to their highest in nearly eight years on Wednesday, while global shares cooled as signs of an acceleration in coronavirus cases kept investors on edge.

* Oil prices fell on Wednesday, reversing the previous session's surge as worries about a second wave of the pandemic outweighed support from a gradual reopening of global economies.

* The Bank of Japan on Wednesday offered 8.28 trillion yen ($77.74 billion) in loans to financial institutions under a new lending programme aimed at channeling funds to cash-strapped firms hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

* Japanese shares ended weaker on Wednesday as investor sentiment turned negative in response to Tokyo's highest daily COVID-19 cases in more than a month.

* The Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday closed its headquarters and trading floor for 24 hours after an employee tested positive for the new coronavirus, but said trading was not affected.

(Compiled by Anna Rzhevkina, Devika Syamnath and Amy Caren Daniel; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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