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- A revised mortality model projects that 147,000 Americans will die of COVID-19 by early August
- Global death toll has passed 290,000, with over 4.25 million recorded cases
- Germany’s daily toll of deaths and infections has fallen slightly
- Brazil has registered its highest ever daily death toll from the virus
Updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC/GMT)
04:00 New Zealand reported zero new cases for the second consecutive day. This comes as the country prepares to ease many of lockdown restrictions from Thursday.
Most businesses will be able to reopen, but social distancing rules will remain in place. Public gatherings will be limited to ten people.
The easing of restrictions coincides with the government’s release of the annual budget, which will be aimed at the country’s economic recovery.
03:52 The vice mayor of China’s Jilin city warned that there is a high risk that the virus could spread further within the population after six new cases were reported in the city.
Five of the new infections could be traced to one confirmed case in the city of Shulan, about 100 kilometers (63 miles) away from Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, where an infection cluster was previously reported.
Vice Mayor Gai Dongping said that authorities are preparing to ramp up measures to curb the spread of the virus. The city has also temporarily suspended rail services at a main train station.
03:06 Germany has reported 798 cases, and 101 new deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 171,306 and the death toll to 7,634, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Both figures mark a decrease from the previous day’s count of 933 new cases and 116 deaths.
03:00 Lives have been lost in the pandemic due to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) continued exclusion of Taiwan and refusal to allow it to share best practices and information, a US government commission on China revealed in a report.
Taiwan says that China and the WHO have conspired for political purposes to keep it from participating in talks, that the WHO has not responded to requests for coronavirus information, and that the organization has misreported Taiwan’s case count. The US has supported many of those claims.
In a report released by the US Congress’ US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, the commission said Taiwan’s exclusion contributed to “critical delays” in timely receipt and accurate guidance for WHO members in the early stages of the outbreak.
“Had the WHO allowed Taiwan’s health experts to share information and best practices in early January, governments around the world could have had more complete information on which to base their public health policies,” it said.
“The lives lost as a result of these missteps offer a tragic reminder of how global health is compromised by the WHO’s politically-motivated exclusion of Taiwan,” the report read.
Meanwhile, a poll released by the Pew Research Center showed that about two-thirds of Taiwanese people don’t identify as Chinese.
The center found that 66% view themselves as Taiwanese, while 28% see themselves as both Taiwanese and Chinese and 4% see themselves as just Chinese. The results show that China could have difficulty presiding over the self-governing island, which claims its own sovereignty. However, China says Taiwan remains one of its provinces.
02:09 Fears are abound that Brazil may become the globe’s new epicenter and those concerns have been given added credence by global health experts.
“Certainly, the increase of cases (in Brazil) in the last several days is a case of concern,” Marcos Espinal, head of the communicable diseases department at the Pan American Health Organization, told a briefing in Washington.
Indeed, there are even suggestions that the figures in Brazil are greatly underestimated.
“Brazil is only testing people who end up in the hospital,” said Domingo Alves, one of the authors of a study published last week that estimated the real number of cases in the Latin American country was 15 times higher than the official figure.
01:59 Australia’s treasurer Josh Frydenberg has tested negative for COVID-19, after a bout of coughing struck the politician during a speech in parliament.
“Yesterday I was tested for COVID-19 out of an abundance of caution,” he tweeted, following the occurrence that left him breathless. “This morning I received the result of the test which was negative.”
The episode, which took place with Prime Minister Scott Morrison nearby in attendance, raised fears that the virus could be hitting the top of the Australian government.
01:39 China has reported seven new coronavirus cases, up from just one a day earlier, according to the National Health Commission.
Six of the new cases were local infections in the northeastern province of Jilin, where authorities have raised alert levels and suspended rail connections. One imported case was in Shanghai, the commission said.
China has also confirmed eight new asymptomatic cases, compared to 15 the day prior, while 754 people are undergoing treatment for suspected cases.
China has reported a total of 4,633 deaths and 82,926 reported cases.
01:08 Six people have been killed in clashes with police in Guinea during protests over roadblocks set up to curb the spread of coronavirus, according to police.
The police said people were demonstrating against roadblocks set up to control traffic between the country’s capital, Conakry, and the rest of the country. The protesters said they were tired of being mistreated and extorted by police manning the roadblocks in question.
Guinea has been one of the worst-hit countries in West Africa, with 2,298 recorded cases and 11 deaths.
00:39 Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro has announced the extension of the nationwide lockdown aimed at the curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
“I will renew the 30-day state-of-alert decree in order to continue to protect our people,” Maduro said. The Latin American nation went into lockdown on March 13, which was previously extended in mid-April.
Venezuela has reported 423 cases of coronavirus, with ten deaths so far. These figures have been disputed by Maduro’s rival Juan Guaido, who says the number of infections are far greater.
00:28 Canadian singer-songwriter Bryan Adams has apologized for an expletive-filled Instagram rant blaming animal cruelty at Chinese wet markets for the coronavirus outbreak.
“No excuse, I just wanted to have a rant about the horrible animal cruelty in these wet-markets being the possible source of the virus, and promote veganism,” Adams wrote on his Instagram page.
Adams, who is best known for a string of hit singles, such as Run to You and Summer of ‘69, comments that sparked outrage were: “…Thanks to some … bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards, the whole world is now on hold, not to mention the thousands that have suffered or died from this virus.” Adams wrote the post while also lamenting his concerts being canceled due to the virus.
“My message to them … is go vegan,” he added.
Canadian pop star Bryan Adams apologized for his “rant”
00:10 Global cases have now surpassed 4.25 million, with almost a third of those coming in the United States, the hardest-hit country in the world, according to the Johns Hopkins Institute.
Recent spikes in infections in Brazil, Russia and the UK have seen the worldwide total reach the new figure.
From scrambling for vaccines to notions of “immunity passports,” the world continues to struggle in its fight to come to terms with the virus that has caused the deaths of more than 290,000 people.
Just over four months since reports first emerged of a SARS-like virus in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, has since spread across Asia, ripping through Europe and causing devastation in the US. It is now threatening to do the same in Latin America. More than 200 countries have reported infections.
Lockdowns have been implemented like dominoes across the globe, with varying degrees of stringency and success, though some of these are now being gradually relaxed, particularly in Europe.
00:05 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro openly challenged governors who are protesting his decree to reopen gyms and hair salons, to file lawsuits against the move. Bolsonaro’s decision to reopen a large list of businesses was made in the belief that the economic damage of the lockdown outweighed the effects of the virus on the Brazilian population.
The Brazilian Supreme Court has previously ruled that state and local governments have the authority to order businesses to close, but Bolsonaro has used his presidential powers to override that local authority, by formally declaring the establishments “essential.”
Brazil’s health ministry announced that it has processed 482,743 tests in official labs, amid a significant backlog.
Meanwhile, the Latin American country’s registered cases rose to 177,589, according to the health ministry, surpassing Germany’s 170,508 confirmed infections.
Brazil also declared 881 deaths in the last 24 hours, a record for a single day.
00:00 Catch up on yesterday’s coronavirus news here: Germany’s infection rate drops below key threshold
In reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, unless otherwise specified, DW uses figures provided by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Coronavirus Resource Center in the United States. JHU updates figures in real-time, collating data from world health organizations, state and national governments and other public official sources, all of whom have their own systems for compiling information.
Germany’s national statistics are compiled by its public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). These figures depend on data transmission from state and local levels and are updated around once a day, which can lead to deviation from JHU.
lc, jdi/jsi (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)