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Agencies

The coronavirus pandemic is “not even close to being over”, the World Health Organisation warned, as the global death toll passed half a million and cases surged in Latin America and the United States.
“We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva on Monday.
“But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over,” he said, adding that “although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up”.
The virus was first detected at least six months ago in China, where the WHO will send a team next week in the search for its origin, Tedros said.
‘Wear a mask!’ Republicans break with Trump as coronavirus cases soar
Covid-19 is still rampaging across the US, which has recorded more than 125,000 deaths and 2.5 million cases – both around a quarter of the global totals.
US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the April-June quarter was expected to see the largest decline in GDP on record, adding that recovery would depend on government efforts to contain the outbreak.


California and Texas both marked record spikes in new Covid-19 infections on Monday, as Los Angeles reported an “alarming” one-day surge in America’s second-largest city that put it over 100,000 cases. Los Angeles has become a new epicentre in the pandemic as coronavirus cases and hospitalisation surge there despite California Governor Gavin Newsom’s strict orders requiring bars to close and residents to wear masks in nearly all public spaces.
Coronavirus studies strengthen link between loss of smell or taste and Covid-19
Even in New York, deemed to be in good health comparatively, the iconic Broadway theatre district announced it would remain closed through the end of the year.
Dr Anthony Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the recent spike in US infections had been fuelled in large part by Americans ignoring public health guidelines to keep their distance and wear masks.
President Donald Trump has come under growing pressure to set an example by wearing a mask, but has refused.


The second hardest-hit country Brazil registered 259,105 infections in the seven days through Sunday – the country’s highest of any week during the pandemic.
Ireland’s pubs began pouring pints for the first time in 15 weeks, as Europe – still the hardest-hit continent – continues to open up after seeing numbers of new cases fall.
In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his country had gone through a “profound shock” as he prepared to unveil a large stimulus programme.
His government plans to reopen pubs, restaurants and hairdressers across England on July 4, but on Monday ordered schools and non-essential shops in Leicester, central England, to close after a localised outbreak.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron called for a “strong” and “efficient” recovery fund for the European Union.
In Merkel’s Germany, which has been praised for how it has tackled its Covid-19 outbreak, the North Rhine-Westphalia state extended a lockdown on a district hit hard by a slaughterhouse outbreak.
Danger still lurks in Germany, a world leader in coronavirus war
In neighbouring Switzerland, organisers said that 2021’s Geneva International Motor Show was cancelled, after already scrapping this year’s event.
The Middle East’s most affected country Iran reported 162 more deaths on Monday, its highest single-day toll yet, a day after it also made mask-wearing mandatory for inside gatherings.
In the Asia-Pacific region, hundreds of thousands of people across Melbourne’s north and west were ordered to stay at home Tuesday as Australia’s second-biggest city struggled to contain a spike in coronavirus cases
The state of Victoria has recorded 233 Covid-19 cases since Thursday – mostly in Melbourne – a major surge in a country that has otherwise successfully curbed the spread of the virus.
Residents from other areas will be prevented from entering the worst-affected communities in the city, with police on patrol and officers stopping cars to conduct random checks.
“These are extraordinary steps,” State premier Daniel Andrews said.
Several Indian cities prepared to extend their lockdowns to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, as daily cases in the country remained close to 20,000.
India reported 18,522 new cases over the previous 24 hours, according to federal health data released on Tuesday, down slightly from Sunday’s record of 19,906.
Indonesia reported its biggest rise in deaths with 71 new fatalities, taking the total to 2,876, said health ministry official Achmad Yurianto.
Meanwhile, New Zealand said that next year’s Apec summit of Asia-Pacific leaders will be held online, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warning there is no guarantee the global coronavirus pandemic would be over by late 2021.
Malaysia has yet to make a decision on the fate of this year’s Apec summit, although some lead-up events have already been held online.
Agence France-Presse, DPA, Bloomberg, Reuters


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Coronavirus pandemic

‘Worst yet to come’ in coronavirus pandemic, WHO chief warns

Medical workers prepare to intubate a coronavirus patient in Houston, Texas. Photo: Reuters

Coronavirus: WHO to send second team into China to seek source of Covid-19

The Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province, was the site of the first outbreak of the new coronavirus. Photo: Simon Song

An aerial view shows the P4 laboratory (C) at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on April 17, 2020. - The P4 epidemiological laboratory was built in co-operation with French bio-industrial firm Institut Merieux and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The facility is among a handful of labs around the world cleared to handle Class 4 pathogens (P4) - dangerous viruses that pose a high risk of person-to-person transmission. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP)

FILE - In this Thursday, June 25, 2020 file photo, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), attends a press conference, at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The head of the World Health Organization dismissed complaints from countries complaining that contact tracing is too difficult to implement as a control strategy for the pandemic as âlame.â The U.N. health agency has repeatedly advised countries that shutting down their COVID-19 outbreaks requires having a strong contact tracing program in place, a labour-intensive process of tracking down contacts of people with coronavirus to ensure those at risk isolate themselves. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)

Coronavirus: India reports nearly 20,000 cases a day as it struggles to contain pandemic

Indian health workers wearing personal protective equipment arrive at a coronavirus hotspot in Mumbai. Photo: EPA

epa08514173 A general aerial view of the slums in Appa Pada area, a COVID-19 hotspot, in Mumbai, India, 28 June 2020. The Indian government has eased some coronavirus related restrictions but has said the lockdown will continue until 30 June, in 'containment zones'. According to the latest reports, India has surpassed 500,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. EPA-EFE/DIVYAKANT SOLANKI

Commuters ride along a street past closed shops following strict lockdown norms for weekends and public holidays were imposed as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Amritsar on June 28, 2020. (Photo by NARINDER NANU / AFP)

epa08514429 A symmetrical image shows a barber wearing protective gear giving a customer a haircut while both are reflected in a mirror at the Seven Star hair salon in Mumbai, India, 28 June 2020. Barbershops and hair salons have reopened their doors for business following around three months of lockdown imposed in a bid to slow down the spread of the pandemic COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The state authorities of Maharashtra have begun relaxing restrictions for many key sectors, as has India's national government in New Delhi, though the latter has said that certain lockdown measures will continue until at least 30 June in so-called 'containment zones' where the virus is more prevalent. According to the latest figures, India has already surpassed the 500,000 mark in terms of confirmed coronavirus cases. EPA-EFE/DIVYAKANT SOLANKI

Is the coronavirus pandemic entering a second wave?

A contractor for the Metropolitan Transit Authority disinfects a subway train using an electrostatic sprayer in New York on June 10. Photo: Bloomberg

Pandemic takes the shine off China’s Belt and Road Initiative as African partners struggle with coronavirus

China Exim Bank has funded the belt and road project of a Standard Gauge Railway passenger train from Mombasa to Naivasha in Kenya but is now demanding a commercial viability study before releasing money to fund the link to Malaba. Photo: EPA-EFE

(190613) -- CHONGWE (ZAMBIA), June 13, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Dora Siliya (C-R), Zambia's Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services, shakes hands with Zhang Maoyu, Vice Chairman of China International Development Cooperation Agency, during the completion ceremony of a China-funded village TV project in Chongwe, Lusaka province, Zambia, on June 13, 2019. China handed over to the Zambian side on Thursday a completed project providing hundreds of local villages access to satellite TV. The project, which was officially launched in June last year by President Edgar Lungu, saw the installation of satellite television sets in 500 villages in the country's 10 provinces. (Xinhua/Peng Lijun)

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World

Coronavirus

Health & Medicine


Lack of unity within countries and lack of solidarity between nations allowed virus to spread, WHO says
Covid-19 rampaging across the US, which has recorded more than 125,000 deaths and 2.5 million cases



The World Health Organisation warned worst still to come because of a lack of global solidarity.


Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

World Health Organization (WHO)