El mundo supera los 25 millones de casos de covid-19 / Global coronavirus cases exceed 25 million

El número de casos confirmados de covid-19 ya supera los 25 millones a nivel mundial.

La enfermedad ha causado la muerte de más de 843.000 personas, según datos de la Universidad Johns Hopkins.

Después de ocho meses de que se reportara el primer caso de covid-19 en China, las tasas de contagio aún siguen creciendo en varios países.

El mayor número de casos se registran en Estados Unidos y América Latina.

Estados Unidos registra el mayor número de contagios, con más de 6 millones de casos.

El segundo lugar lo ocupa Brasil, con más de 3,8 millones de casos.

En tercer lugar está India, que reporta 3,5 millones y muestra un marcado aumento en el número de contagios.

Este domingo, el país reportó más de 78.000 nuevos casos, el mayor aumento que se haya registrado en un día a nivel mundial.

En América Latina, a Brasil le sigue Perú, con más de 639.000; y Colombia, que se acerca a los 600.000.

Le siguen México, con 591.712; Chile con 409.974; y Argentina, con 401.239.

Mayor que la influenza
El número oficial de casos de covid-19 es ya cinco veces mayor que el número de casos de influenza severa que se registra anualmente, según datos de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS).

Las casi 844.00 muertes también ya superaron el número de muertes anuales relacionadas con la influenza, que está entre las 290.000 y las 650.000.

Los expertos advierten que las cifras oficiales de contagios y muertes pueden ser inferiores a las reales, especialmente en países con capacidad limitada para hacer pruebas.

Globalmente, la tasa de nuevos contagios ha sido disminuyendo sostenidamente, de 7,7% en marzo a 1,2% en agosto, según informa la agencia Reuters.

Aunque varios países y farmacéuticas han anunciado que están en etapas avanzadas en el desarrollo de una vacuna, hasta el momento no se ha aprobado ninguna vacuna para uso masivo a nivel mundial como tratamiento efectivo contra la covid-19.

La OMS ha advertido que podría tomar cerca de dos años detener la propagación del virus.

Global coronavirus cases exceed 25 million

Over 16.4 million recoveries and 842,000 deaths reported; US, Brazil and India report highest number of infections.

Global coronavirus cases surged past 25 million, according to a Johns Hopkins University’s tally, as deaths exceed 843,000. More than 16.4 million have recovered.

India’s health ministry announced on Sunday at least 78,761 new infections in 24 hours, setting a new daily record worldwide.

Brazil’s Ministry of Health has reported at least 758 additional coronavirus fatalities during the last 24 hours, with 41,350 new cases, bringing the death toll to 120,262, and the confirmed cases to 3,846,153.

Every Italian region reported new coronavirus cases after a record 99,000 tests turned up another 1,444 cases.

Sunday, August 30
23:08 GMT – Pakistan reports lowest number of new daily cases in four months
Pakistani authorities have reported 264 new COVID-19 cases, the country’s lowest daily count for the new coronavirus in more than four months.

In a statement Sunday, the national command and control center said only four people died from the new virus in the previous 24 hours, taking overall COVID-19 deaths to 6,288 since the start of the outbreak in February.

However, health officials are still trying to understand the reason for a steady decline in infections in Pakistan, which witnessed twin peaks in June when daily confirmed cases reached up to 6,825.

It was then when hospitals were full amid shortage of medicine, oxygen and ventilators, and even face masks were not easily available.

19:40 GMT – Jordan reports its highest daily tally of infections
Jordan reported 73 new cases, its highest daily tally since the start of the outbreak, the health ministry said.

The country’s total number of confirmed infections now stands at 1,966, with 15 deaths, since the first case surfaced in early March, according to the health ministry.

Jordan has seen a jump in daily numbers over the last 10 days, prompting authorities to toughen a nationwide overnight curfew, which now starts at 11pm rather than 1am, and to introduce a one-day lockdown in the capital Amman on Friday.

Officials have also delayed the resumption of regular commercial flights from Alia international airport, which was expected to happen this month, hampering prospects of a rapid recovery for its debt-burdened economy.

17:36 GMT – France shows steady growth in new cases
France reported 5,413 new cases, slightly down from the 5,453 seen on Saturday.

The health ministry said the cumulative number of COVID-19 deaths rose to 30,606 from 30,602 reported on Saturday.

The number of people in hospital with the disease was 4,535 versus 4,530 the day before and the number in intensive care rose to 402 from 400.

“In mainland France, the progression of the COVID-19 epidemic is exponential. The strong growth dynamics of transmission is very worrying.” the ministry said in a statement.

17:34 GMT – US CDC reports coronavirus deaths increase by 1,006 to 182,149
The number of deaths caused by the coronavirus rose by 1,006 to 182,149 people, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said, reporting a total of 5,934,824 cases, an increase of 44,292 from its previous count.

16:22 GMT – Turkey records 1,482 new cases, 42 deaths
Turkey registered 1,482 new cases and 42 fatalities in the past 24 hours, the health minister said. It also recorded 1,027 recoveries.

To date, the country reported 267,064 cases nationwide and 6,284 deaths.

16:13 GMT – Zante flight to Cardiff told to self isolate after cases found
Passengers who were on a flight last week from the Greek island of Zakynthos to Cardiff in Wales have been told to isolate after it was identified as the source of at least seven confirmed coronavirus cases, Public Health Wales said.

“Cardiff and Vale Test Trace Protect and Public Health Wales have identified at least seven confirmed cases of COVID-19 from three different parties who were infectious on TUI Flight 6215 from Zante to Cardiff on 25 August,” said Giri Shankar, incident director for the coronavirus outbreak response at Public Health Wales.

“As a result, we are advising that all passengers on this flight are considered close contacts and must self-isolate,” he said in a statement.

Shankar added that investigations had found that the virus had spread to other groups of people because of “a lack of social distancing, in particular by a minority of the 20-30 year age group”.

15:06 GMT – Britain records 1,715 new cases
The United Kingdom reported 1,715 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, up 607 cases from the day before, according to government data.

One person had died after they tested positive for the disease within 28 days, it said.

The country has so far recorded 334,926 infections and 41,585 deaths.

14:18 GMT – Germany politicians condemn far-right flags outside parliament
Leading politicians condemned protesters who stormed the steps of Germany’s Reichstag parliament building, some of them holding far-right flags, during mass marches against coronavirus curbs a day earlier.

Finance minister Olaf Scholz, of the Social Democrats, the junior partner in Angela Merkel’s conservative-led ruling coalition and candidate to succeed her as chancellor, said Germans must do everything possible to prevent such scenes.

“It is unacceptable that some now appear in front of the Bundestag building, the Reichstag building, the most important symbol of our democracy, the parliament, with symbols from a bad dark past, flags that have nothing to do with our modern democracy,” Scholz told journalists at a brief news conference outside his party’s headquarters in central Berlin.

Scholz’s comments were echoed by politicians including German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the chair of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

“I’m truly incensed,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said on Twitter.

13:47 GMT – Schools to reopen in Nigeria’s Lagos as cases decline
Schools will reopen in Nigeria’s commercial hub of Lagos next month as part of plans to revive the economy as COVID-19 cases decline, the state governor said.

Lagos, the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria, plans to reopen colleges on September 14, and primary and secondary school schools on September 21, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said.

“The gradual easing doesn’t mean the pandemic is over,” he said in a tweet. “It is not an invitation to carelessness or nonchalance.”

The Lagos governor said restaurants, social clubs and recreational centers would also be allowed to reopen as long as they followed safety rules.

Nigeria has reported 53,727 infections in total – including 18,104 in Lagos – and 1,011 deaths.

Hello, this is Farah Najjar taking over from my colleague Umut Uras.

12:30 GMT – FDA commissioner says willing to fast-track COVID-19 vaccine – FT
The head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is willing to fast-track a COVID-19 vaccine as quickly as possible, the Financial Times reported him as saying in a published interview.

Stephen Hahn, who serves as the commissioner of FDA, said his agency was prepared to authorise a vaccine before phase three clinical trials were complete, the paper reported

11:45 GMT – Mutated coronavirus strain found in Indonesia

A more infectious mutation of the new coronavirus has been found in Indonesia, the Jakarta-based Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology said.

Indonesia reported 2,858 new infections on Sunday, data by the health ministry showed, below the previous day’s record 3,308 but above the past month’s daily average. Its total number of cases was 172,053, with 7,343 COVID-19 fatalities.

The “infectious but milder” D614G mutation of the virus has been found in genome-sequencing data from samples collected by the institute, deputy director Herawati Sudoyo told the Reuters news agency, adding that more study is required to determine whether that was behind the recent rise in cases.

The strain, which the World Health Organization said was identified in February and has been circulating in Europe and the Americas, has also been found in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.

11:00 GMT – Global coronavirus cases exceed 25 million
Global coronavirus cases surged past 25 million, according to data compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University, with India setting the record for the highest single-day rise in cases.

The university’s running data showed that global confirmed COVID-19 infections stood at 25,009,739 and the number of recoveries had reached 16,411,400.

The data showed steady global growth as the disease’s epicentre shifts again, with India taking centre stage from the United States and Latin America.

India’s single-day tally of 78,761 new coronavirus infections on Sunday exceeded the one-day increase of 77,299 reported by the US in mid-July.

10:10 GMT- UK’s Sunak ‘considers’ sweeping tax hikes to plug COVID-19 hole
British finance minister Rishi Sunak is considering a sweeping set of tax increases to help fix the huge hole in the public finances left by the coronavirus pandemic, two newspapers have said.

Tax hikes suggested by Treasury officials could raise an extra 20-30 billion pounds a year, the Telegraph and the Sunday Times reported, and some of them could be announced in an autumn budget statement by Sunak. However, officials working for Prime Minister Boris Johnson are fiercely opposed to a major tax raid on wealthier voters and want to consider spending cuts instead, the Telegraph said.

Britain’s public debt has passed two trillion pounds ($2.7 trillion), pushed up by emergency spending on Sunak’s coronavirus job retention scheme, tax cuts for businesses and consumers and even a dining-out subsidy to coax people back into restaurants.

9:20 GMT – British universities should not reopen next month: Union
British universities should scrap plans to reopen next month to prevent travelling students from fuelling the country’s coronavirus pandemic, a union said, calling for courses to be taught online.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has come under fire over its moves to restart education, especially after a row over exam results for school students and a failed attempt to bring all pupils back to their classes earlier this year.

8:45 GMT – Brazil to extend coronavirus economic aid on Tuesday: Official
Brazil will officially announce the extension of an aid payment programme designed to help people weather the economic damage of the novel coronavirus pandemic, a government official said.

President Jair Bolsonaro has previously stated that the aid payments, which are due to expire this month, will be renewed through the end of the year. However, a planned announcement last Tuesday was delayed after disagreements about the form of future aid payments and related benefits arose between the Economy Ministry and Bolsonaro.

7:45 GMT – Russia’s coronavirus infection tally climbs to near 1 million
Russia reported 4,980 new coronavirus cases, pushing its confirmed national tally to 990,326.

Authorities said 68 people had died of COVID-19 over the last 24 hours, raising the official death toll to 17,093

7:10 GMT – Mexico coronavirus cases rise to 591,712
Mexico’s health ministry reported 5,974 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infections and 673 additional fatalities, bringing the total to 591,712 cases and 63,819 deaths.

The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.

6:00 GMT – South Korea marks 17th day of triple-digit cases with dining curbs
South Korea reported its 17th day of triple-digit rises in coronavirus infections, as restrictions on onsite dining at restaurants, pubs and bakeries in the densely populated Seoul area take effect.

There were 299 new infections as of Saturday midnight, the slowest daily rise in five days, bringing the national tally to 19,699 cases of the new coronavirus and 323 COVID-19 deaths, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.

00:30 GMT – Thai scientists develop COVID-19 vaccine using tobacco leaves
A leading infectious disease doctor from Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University has announced that tests of new locally produced COVID-19 vaccines on monkeys had proved successful.

Dr Thiravat Hemachudha, head of the Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Disease Health Science Centre, said that the latest vaccine is produced by integrating the virus’s DNA into tobacco leaves. The plant responds to the DNA and produces proteins about a week later, according to a report in the Bangkok Post.

The proteins are then extracted to make the vaccine. So far, it has been tested on mice and monkeys. The next step is testing it on humans.

“This vaccine, made with proteins from a special type of tobacco leaf, is easy and cheap to produce, even at an industrial scale. Also, there will be no patent-related problems with this approach,” he was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying.

00:10 GMT – Brazil coronavirus deaths surpass 120,000

Brazil’s Ministry of Health has reported at least 758 additional coronavirus fatalities during the last 24 hours, with 41,350 new cases, bringing the death toll to 120,262, and the confirmed number of cases to 3,846,153.

Brazil is the second-hardest-hit country by COVID-19 after the United States, both in fatalities and infections. The country, however, reported a slowdown in the number of new cases and deaths.

00:01 GMT – Italy carries out record number of COVID-19 tests
Every Italian region reported new coronavirus cases after a record 99,000 tests turned up another 1,444 cases, The Associated Press news agency reported.

The health ministry says one more victim of COVID-19 brought Italy’s official death toll to 35,473 on Saturday.

Italy has nearly doubled its daily tests this month amid a surge in new infections, mostly among young people returning from holidays.
by Umut Uras, Farah Najjar & Ted Regencia