EUROPE
* Britons spent 40% of their waking day watching TV and online video at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown in April, regulator Ofcom said.
* Greece‘s top scientific adviser warned against complacency over risks lurking from the coronavirus after the country reported its highest single-day increase in infections in weeks.
* Denmark should not allow nightclubs and music venues to reopen given a recent increase in cases and should pause a planned fourth phase of relaxing lockdown measures, its state epidemiologist said.
AMERICAS
* Latin America surpassed Europe on Tuesday to become the region with the highest coronavirus death toll worldwide, according to a Reuters tally.
* An eighth minister in Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s Cabinet has tested positive for the new coronavirus.
* U.S. losses from coronavirus-related fraud and identity theft have reached nearly $100 million since the pandemic emerged in March, while complaints of COVID-19 scams have at least doubled in most states.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Australia’s second most populous state of Victoria reported its deadliest day of the coronavirus outbreak, while the Queensland state said it would closer its border with New South Wales to prevent a second wave of COVID-19.
* South Korean officials are working to keep more than a thousand people displaced by flooding safe and healthy with anti-coronavirus measures in place at crowded shelters.
* Sri Lankans go to polls on Wednesday to elect a new parliament in an election that has been twice postponed this year because of the coronavirus outbreak.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* The number of people who have died from the virus in Yemen has reached 500, according to a Reuters tally, although aid organizations say the death toll is probably much higher.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Taiwan provisionally approved the use of dexamethasone, a cheap and widely-used steroid, to treat the new coronavirus.
* The National Institutes of Health said it would launch two trials to evaluate antibody COVID-19 drugs and follow these up with trials for other experimental therapies in patients with the disease.
* Novavax Inc said its experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced antibodies against the coronavirus and appears to be safe, according to initial data from a small, early-stage clinical trial.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
* Gold scaled a new high on Wednesday as a weaker dollar and falling bond yields burnished its safe-haven appeal, while shares were mostly lower as investors baulked at the ballooning cost of the coronavirus pandemic.
* Growth in China’s services sector slowed in July from a decade high the previous month, as new export business fell and job losses continued, an industry survey showed.
* Japan’s services sector contracted for a sixth straight month in July, suggesting economic activity remained under pressure.
(Reuters)
