Coronavirus digest: World Health Summit kicks off virtually from Berlin
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier launched the World Health Summit on Sunday evening from Berlin. The summit, which lasts until Tuesday, is being held online due to the rising infection rate in Germany.
Steinmeier called for international cooperation in stemming the coronavirus pandemic and railed against “vaccine nationalism.”
UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also spoke at the opening ceremony.
A couple of thousand coronavirus conspiracy theorists had gathered in Berlin on Sunday to protest the summit.
Here’s a round up of major developments around the world.
Europe
Bars and restaurants in Italy will have to close by 6 p.m. from Monday. Cinemas, theaters, gyms, swimming pools, ski resorts and concert halls may not open at all. High school students will return to online classes.
The Bulgarian president, Boyko Borissov, reported feeling a “general malaise” on Sunday after testing positive for COVID-19.
Bars and clubs in the Bulgarian capital Sofia were also closed from Sunday until November 8 in order to slow down the rapidly increasing infection rate in the southeastern European country.
Slovakia has completed the first phase of its antigen testing program in the hardest hit regions of the country. After testing tens of thousands of people over the weekend, the government hopes to extend the program to the rest of the five million strong population.
Russian authorities reported a record number of 17,347 new cases in the previous 24 hours on Monday, including 5,224 in Moscow alone. The total number of recorded cases was over 1.5 million.
Asia-Pacific
In Australia the city of Melbourne began to come out of a four-month-long strict lockdown after 24 hours of no new cases being recorded and a week since the last death associated with COVID-19.
The population of 5 million are once again allowed to go out freely after the stay-at-home order was lifted.
Dozens of new cases, of unknown origin, were recorded in the northwestern Xinjiang region of China over the weekend. Authorities discovered 137 asymptomatic cases following a drive to test 4.75 million people in the Kashgar area.
Americas
In the United States, New York became the fourth state to surpass half a million cases as the country sees a renewed surge in infections and hospitalizations.
Former Brazilian football star Ronaldinho announced on Instagram on Sunday that he had tested positive for coronavirus, but was so far “asymptomatic”. He said he would go into isolation in his hotel until his condition improved.
ab/rt (Reuters, dpa, AP, epd, EFE)
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