The coronavirus pandemic is
accelerating, with Thursday's 150 000 new cases the highest in a
single day and nearly half of those in the Americas, the World
Health Organization (WHO) said.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* More than 8.69 million people have been reported to be
infected by the coronavirus globally and 459 604 have died, a
Reuters tally showed as of 1000 GMT on Saturday.
EUROPE
* British finance minister Rishi Sunak signalled that the
government is poised to relax its two-metre social distancing
rule for England which businesses have said in its current form
would slow their recovery from the coronavirus
lockdown.
* Pope Francis held his first audience for a group of people
since Italy lifted its lockdown, granting it to health workers
from the Italian region most affected by the
pandemic.
* Scientists in Italy have found traces of the coronavirus
in wastewater collected from Milan and Turin in December 2019 -
suggesting Covid-19 was already circulating in northern Italy
before China reported the first cases.
AMERICAS
* Amid a still-strong pandemic and after weeks of protests
about racial inequality, President Donald Trump will hold a
rally with thousands of supporters in Oklahoma on Saturday in an
effort to reinvigorate his re-election campaign. Troubling
spikes in infection rates were reported on Friday in several
US states.
* Hopes that sport in the United States might soon return to
business as usual suffered a blow on Friday as athletes from
golf to hockey tested positive for the coronavirus, triggering a
shutdown of some facilities.
* Brazil passed 1 million coronavirus cases on Friday and
approached 50 000 deaths, a new nadir for the world's second
worst-hit country as it struggles with a tense political climate
and worsening economic outlook.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Officials in Beijing are carrying out tests to detect
traces of coronavirus on all food and parcel delivery workers in
an effort to rein in a new outbreak, state-backed media
reported.
* India reported a record jump in coronavirus infections, a
day after the government in the capital New Delhi ordered
hospitals to cancel any leave and have workers return to duty
immediately.
* Indonesia's oldest zoo reopened, but to a fraction of the
normal number of visitors, after being forced to close more than
three months ago because of the pandemic.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Saudi Arabia will end a nationwide curfew and lift
restrictions on businesses from Sunday morning after three
months of lockdown, state news agency SPA quoted a source in the
interior ministry as saying.
* President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had lost some ground
in its coronavirus battle but a focus on hygiene, masks and
social distancing will protect people and help the economy
rebound in the second half of the year.
Picture: Yves Herman/Reuters
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* A sixth experimental vaccine from China is now being
tested in humans after Clover Biopharmaceuticals said an
early-stage study of its candidate was underway with vaccine
boosters from UK's GSK and US-based Dynavax.
* Several US hospitals have started treating patients
with dexamethasone rather than await confirmation of preliminary
results of a British study, which said the inexpensive steroid
saves lives.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
* The European Central Bank's chief said the European
Union's economy is in a "dramatic fall" due to the coronavirus
crisis but EU leaders made little progress towards agreeing a
massive stimulus plan.
* Two US Federal Reserve officials sounded increasing
pessimism on the swiftness of any economic recovery from the
epidemic and said the unemployment rate could rise again if the
disease is not brought under control.
* Russia's central bank slashed interest rates on Friday to
the lowest level since the collapse of the Soviet Union.