Coronavirus latest: Record daily deaths for Brazil and Mexico
- Brazil reports a record number of daily deaths from the coronavirus for the second consecutive day
- Coronavirus fatalities in Mexico have also soared to a new daily high
- Germany is to spend 130 billion euros on a virus stimulus package
- More than 6.4 million people are now infected with COVID-19 globally and some 380,000 have died
All times in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC/GMT)
03:58 Germany has reported 394 new cases of coronavirus, according to the latest figures from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.
Thirty new deaths were recorded, taking the total to 8,591.
The tally of the total number of infections in the country is now 182,764.
About 167,800 people have already recovered — almost 600 more than the day before.
03:48 Researchers at the University of Bonn found that contracting the virus from surfaces in a domestic situation is highly unlikely.
“The domestic environment predominantly does not seem to pose a high risk for transmission of SARS-CoV-2,” the study said, referring to the novel coronavirus by its official name.
The researchers took samples from multiple places in residences where at least one person was in direct contact with a positive case. The samples included the surfaces of toilets, doorknobs and even a remote control.
The wastewater samples from showers, washbasins and toilets returned the highest number of positive tests with 15.15%.
The researchers said that the study supported “the hypothesis that indirect environmental transmission may only play a minor role, which needs clarifications in further studies.”
03:30 A full post-mortem examination of George Floyd has revealed that he tested positive for coronavirus in April, the Associated Press reports.
Floyd, the unarmed black man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police, had reportedly appeared asymptomatic.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office released a 20-page autopsy report on Wednesday.
As per the report, Floyd had a heart attack while being restrained. His death on May 25 was classified as a homicide.
03:20 Chinese authorities have reported one confirmed new coronavirus case and four asymptomatic cases, which it does not count in its official tally. Beijing also reported no new deaths as a result of the deadly pathogen.
Authorities said the cases were imported from travelers arriving from abroad.
China is the origin point of the globe-spanning outbreak. However, experts have yet to trace the virus to an exact source.
Western countries, including Germany and the US, have criticized Beijing for a lack of transparency concerning the novel coronavirus, especially at the onset of the pandemic.
02:35 A highly-anticipated study on the use of hydroxychloroquine to combat the novel coronavirus did not show a statistically-significant impact compared to a placebo.
In a randomized controlled trial conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota, only 11.83% of people given hydroxychloroquine were infected after exposure from an infected individual, as opposed to 14.25% of those given a placebo.
“This randomized trial did not demonstrate a significant benefit of hydroxychloroquine as postexposure prophylaxis for COVID-19,” said the study’s authors in their paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
US President Donald Trump announced last month that he was hydroxychloroquine to prevent infection of the deadly pathogen, and recommended others to do the same.
On Tuesday, the British medical journal the ;Lancet announced that it had concerns about a much-vaunted article that found hydroxychloroquine increased the risk of death in COVID-19 patients.
01:30 Brazil has registered a record number of daily deaths from the coronavirus for the second consecutive day.
As the pandemic continued to take a grim toll on Latin America’s hardest-hit country, Health Ministry data brought the country’s new total death toll to 32,548, with 584,016 confirmed infections.
The caseload is the second-highest worldwide, after the United States. Experts say that a lack of testing in the nation of some 210 million people means the real numbers are probably much higher.
President Jair Bolsonaro has fiercely criticized coronavirus lockdown measures imposed by regional governors, even as the number of infections and deaths continues to soar.
The country is the latest frontline of the pandemic, with deaths and infections on the rise. Authorities have imposed fresh restrictions in Brazil’s northeast after “extremely high” numbers of cases were reported.
Concern over the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Latin America has increased even as the health crisis has eased in other regions of the world.
01:16 Mexican authorities said the number of coronvirus-related deaths doubled within a 24-hour period, the country’s highest death toll in one day so far.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell, however, attributed the increase to “various reasons,” including deaths that were being counted days after.
“We have had a very substantial increase in mortality,” Lopez-Gatell said.
Mexico is under pressure from its northern neighbor, the US, to rollback lockdown measures and jump-start the economy. Indeed, Mexican authorities had anticipated an easing of restriction, but the latest increase in deaths and confirmed cases has dimmed that prospect.
Critics have accused the US government of fumbling its response to the pandemic.
Mexican officials have acknowledged that the number of positive cases could be significantly higher than the official tally.
00:01 German Chancellor Angela Merkel said governing parties have agreed on a €130 billion ($146 billion) stimulus package to help the economy recover from the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The measures include temporarily cutting value-added tax form 19% to 16%, providing families with an additional €300 per child and doubling a government-supported rebate on electric car purchases.
Read more: Germany unveils stimulus package to kickstart economy
The package also establishes a €50 billion fund for addressing climate change, innovation and digitization within the German economy.
The measures were agreed by Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, and junior governing partner, the Social Democrats following marathon negotiations that lasted 21 hours.
00:00 Catch up on Wednesday’s developments here: Coronavirus updates: Germany to scrap EU travel warnings by mid-June
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.
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