in-cyprus 3 June 2020 -Josephine Koumettou
Last updated: 03/06/2020 08:32
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a “devastating impact” on people of African descent and ethnic minorities in Brazil, Britain, France and the United States, the top U.N. human rights official said on Tuesday.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* More than 6.39 million people have been reported infected with the coronavirus globally and 379,433 have died, a Reuters tally showed by 0328 GMT on Wednesday.
* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, click here.
EUROPE
* New cases reported daily are steadily declining in Western Europe, but not in hotspots in Russia and Eastern Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
* Black and Asian people in England are up to 50% more likely to die after becoming infected with COVID-19, an official study said, putting pressure on the government to outline plans to protect the most at-risk communities.
* Britain’s death toll neared 50,000 on Tuesday, as the government faced criticisms over its COVID-19 test data and widespread mockery over a so-called “sex ban”.
AMERICAS
* A senior U.S. Army vaccine researcher said it was reasonable to expect that some sort of coronavirus vaccine could be available to part of the U.S. population by the end of 2020.
* The WHO’s Americas regional director urged the United States to keep helping countries in the region fight the virus even as the Trump administration leaves the U.N. agency.
* Brazil registered a record 1,262 deaths over the last 24 hours, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
* Lonza aims to speed completion of two commercial production lines for Moderna Inc’s trial COVID-19 vaccine, the Swiss drugmaker’s chairman said.
* Mexico’s deputy health minister said on Tuesday the coronavirus had reached its peak intensity in the country after the ministry reported a record rise in daily cases.
* Bolivian authorities are doing door-to-door checks in regions with severe outbreaks as it looks to stem the spread of infections which have risen above 10,000.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* India’s coronavirus infections crossed 200,000, the health ministry said on Wednesday, and a peak could still be weeks away in the world’s second most populous country.
* An elderly Rohingya refugee has become the first person to die from the coronavirus in the world’s largest refugee settlement in Bangladesh.
* In Afghanistan, officials said that fewer than one in 10 test samples collected daily are being processed, and of those more than 30% are consistently testing positive, suggesting a high and hidden number of infections.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Zimbabwean troops and police tightened the lockdown in the capital Harare, blocking many cars and buses from entering the central business district as cases increased.
* Dubai will allow the full reopening of malls and private businesses from Wednesday.
* A South African high court declared some of the government’s lockdown regulations unconstitutional but suspended the order for 14 days, leaving the rules in place for now.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
* The World Bank said it expects the coronavirus and resulting recessions to leave “lasting scars” on developing and emerging market countries, with the worst damage on oil exporters and those suffering financial crises.
* Bankers across the European Union could face a one-year ban on bonuses to help push through a “quick fix” package of pandemic relief measures for lenders.
* The amount of natural gas flowing on pipelines to U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants plunged to a 13-month low in June.
(Reuters)
Pictured: A worker wearing a protective face mask walks past a social distancing sign at the construction site of an office building, during the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Tokyo, Japan June 2, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato
