Last updated: 15/07/2020 07:35
Alabama, Florida and North Carolina in the United States reported record daily increases in deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday, while the Federal Reserve said the U.S. economy would recover more slowly than expected.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, click here.
EUROPE
* France will make it compulsory for people to wear masks in shops and other enclosed public spaces from next month.
* Spain’s populous Catalonia region made a fresh attempt to put an area of 160,000 people under lockdown to stem the latest local coronavirus surge.
AMERICAS
* U.S. President Donald Trump lambasted California’s two largest school districts for making students learn from home for the upcoming term in the face of the resurgent pandemic.
* Canada said it would make it easier for foreign students to study online from abroad and to qualify for a work permit after graduation amid strict border closures.
* Mexico proposed to the U.S. an extension to a ban on non-essential travel by land over their shared border for another 30 days.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Tokyo is considering raising its alert for coronavirus infections to the highest of four levels, officials said, after a spike in cases to record numbers in the Japanese capital.
* New Zealand must prepare for new outbreaks as the pandemic spreads globally but will not drop its elimination strategy if community transmission was discovered, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. * Australian states tightened restrictions on movement as authorities struggle to contain a fresh outbreak in the country’s southeast.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Egypt has started offering reusable cotton face masks at around 50 cents each alongside the food items provided in its state subsidy programme.
* Afghanistan faces “catastrophe” as growing COVID-19 cases stretch a health infrastructure already severely weakened by decades of war, the Afghan Red Crescent Society said.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Moderna Inc’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine showed it was safe and provoked immune responses in all 45 healthy volunteers in an ongoing early-stage study.
* Indian pharmaceutical company Zydus said it had started human studies for its potential COVID-19 vaccine, as infections continue to surge in the world’s third worst-hit nation.
* Life sciences company IQVIA Holdings Inc said it would collaborate with AstraZeneca Plc to speed up clinical studies of the British drugmaker’s potential COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
* Three of the largest U.S. banks set aside a whopping $28 billion for loan losses, in a stark reminder that much of the economic pain from the pandemic is still to come.
* Japanese manufacturers remained close to the most pessimistic they have been in 11 years in July as the outbreak hits global demand and deals a punishing blow to the export-reliant economy, the Reuters tankan survey showed.
* Britain’s economy stumbled out of its coronavirus-induced slump in May, dashing hopes of a swift rebound as government budget forecasters said it was on course for its worst year since pre-industrial times.
* Economic activity in Brazil began to grow again in monthly terms in May, after two sharp consecutive declines in March and April.
(Reuters)
Pictured: Saleswomen work during the 41st Bangkok International Motor Show, after the Thai government eased measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Bangkok, Thailand, July 15, 2020. REUTERS/Jorge SIlva
