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- Australia’s second-most populous state of Victoria reported on Monday six new deaths from the coronavirus and logged a record daily increase of 532 new cases.
- The number of coronavirus infections has hit 16.20 million worldwide, while more than 647,900 people have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 9.36 million patients have recovered.
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Morocco will stop people from entering and leaving some of its biggest cities, including Casablanca, Marrakech and Tangier starting on Monday to contain a surge in coronavirus cases. Earlier, the health ministry reported 633 new cases, one of the biggest daily rises so far.
- Florida has overtaken New York in the number of coronavirus cases, according to the latest figures from the health department in the southeastern United States state.
Here are the latest updates:
Monday, July 27
04:24 GMT – Trump to skip first pitch at Yankee Stadium in August
President Donald Trump won’t be throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium next month after all, according to AP news agency.
Trump tweeted that he would not be able to make the trip because of his “strong focus” on the coronavirus, vaccines and the economy. Trump said in the tweet: “We will make it later in the season!”
He had announced at a briefing on Thursday on Major League Baseball’s opening day that he would be at Yankee Stadium on August 15 to throw out the first pitch.
Trump has been trying to show voters that he is taking the virus seriously by holding briefings and canceling Republican convention events set for Jacksonville, Florida. Florida is among several states where the virus is raging.
03:51 GMT – Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 340 to 205,609
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 340 to 205,609, Reuters news agency reported on Monday quoting data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.
The reported deaths remained unchanged at 9,118, the tally showed.
03:10 GMT – Vietnam postpones Asia’s largest security forum
Vietnam has postponed its hosting of Asia’s largest security forum, which includes North Korea, and an annual meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers by a month to September due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Two Southeast Asian diplomats said Monday that Vietnam, which leads the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, hopes to hold face to face meetings in mid-September instead of doing them by online video due to travel restrictions if the annual gatherings were to be held as originally scheduled later this week.
The 10-nation bloc hosts the ASEAN Regional Forum, which brings together its top diplomats with counterparts from the United States, China, Japan, Russia, India, the two Koreas and other Asia Pacific countries to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and other security issues.
Most of about 1,300 ASEAN meetings this year have so far been shifted online due to the coronavirus pandemic, including an annual summit of ASEAN leaders last month.
02:55 GMT – China reports 61 new cases mostly from Xinjiang
China on Monday reported 61 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, spread between its northeastern and northwestern regions.
The Xinjiang region in the northwest reported 41 new cases, while Liaoning and Jilin provinces in the northeast saw a combined total of 16.
Another four cases were brought by Chinese travelers from outside the country.
No new deaths were reported, leaving the toll from COVID-19 in the country at 4,634 among 83,891 cases.
02:45 GMT – South Korea new cases fall below 30
South Korea’s new coronavirus cases have fallen back to below 30 as imported cases dwindled from a record high over the weekend, according to Yonhap news agency.
The country added 25 new cases, including 16 cases from abroad, bringing the total to 14,175, Yonhap quoted the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) as saying.
The tally marked a sharp fall from 58 new virus cases reported on Sunday and a four-month high of 113 on Saturday.
The country also reported one additional death, raising the death toll to 299, according to the KDCD. The fatality rate reached 2.11 percent.
02:10 GMT – Japan to urge more telecommuting as coronavirus cases surge
Japan’s economy minister says the government will urge businesses to aim for 70 percent telecommuting and enhance other social distancing measures amid a rise in coronavirus cases among workers, some infected during after-work socialising, Reuters news agency reported.
Though Japan has largely avoided the mass infections that have killed tens of thousands overseas, a record surge in cases during the past week in Tokyo and other major urban areas has experts worried the country face a second wave.
Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura late on Sunday called on business leaders to enhance anti-virus measures such as encouraging the level of telecommuting achieved during Japan’s state of emergency this year.
Tokyo last week reported a daily record of 366 cases, with 239 on Sunday. The southern city of Fukuoka reported a record 90 cases on Sunday, along with rising numbers in Osaka.
01:50 GMT – Austrian resort town shuts down restaurants, clubs
A popular resort town in Austria has ordered restaurants and clubs to close early and urged people to avoid going out as it grapples with a new outbreak of the coronavirus.
The DPA news agency reported that hundreds of people have already been tested in the town of St Wolfgang, east of Salzburg, after the outbreak was first detected Friday. At least 44 of those have tested positive, at least 26 whom are interns working in the tourism industry, Austria’s Kurier newspaper reported.
They individuals were thought to have become infected while partying in the town’s bars, two of which have now been temporarily closed to prevent further spread.
Austria had relaxed many coronavirus restrictions in recent weeks, but has seen a rise in the number of infections lately.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz last week announced that the country was reintroducing mandatory face masks again in supermarkets, smaller grocery stores, post offices and banks.
01:30 GMT – Australia’s Victoria reports record-high of new coronavirus cases
Australia’s second-most populous state of Victoria reported on Monday six new deaths from the coronavirus and logged a record daily increase of 532 new cases compared with 459 a day earlier, according to Reuters news agency.
“Five of those six deaths are connected to outbreaks in aged care,” state Premier Daniel Andrews said in a media briefing in Melbourne.
Victoria on Sunday suffered its deadliest day since the pandemic began after reporting 10 deaths, mostly at aged-care facilities.
The state recorded its previous one-day high of 484 cases last week.
Medical staff dispose of clinical waste at an aged care facility experiencing an outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Melbourne [AAP Image/Daniel Pockett via Reuters]
01:05 GMT – Serbia reports record number of daily cases
Serbia has reported a record number of daily cases of the new coronavirus, according to AP news agency.
Health authorities said that 467 people have tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, the highest number since the start of the outbreak. They said eight people have died.
Epidemiologist Darija Kisic Tepavcevic said, however, that there is reason to be optimistic because there have been fewer people in need of hospitalisation.
Serbia has confirmed 23,730 cases of the virus while 534 people have died of COVID-19 in the country of some 7 million people.
Numbers of new infections spiked after the Balkan country fully relaxed lockdown measures in May that critics say was a maneuver to pave the way for a parliamentary vote in June.
00:36 GMT – Mexico reports 5,480 new coronavirus cases, 306 deaths
Mexico’s Health Ministry has reported 5,480 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 306 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 390,516 cases and 43,680 deaths.
The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases, according to Reuters news agency.
00:20 GMT – Spain seeks exemption from UK quarantine order
Spain says it is negotiating with the United Kingdom to exclude the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands from a 14-day quarantine imposed on travellers returning to the UK from Spain, AP news agency reported.
Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said, hours after the British measure took effect, that “our efforts at the moment are focused on ensuring that the British authorities can exclude the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands from their quarantine measures.”
The emergence of clusters of the coronavirus has worried authorities in northeast Catalonia and Aragon but has not appeared in Spain’s two archipelagos, which are highly popular tourist destinations for British and other European visitors.
Gonzalez Laya says that the islands are “highly controlled territories” and that their current epidemiological situation is not worse than that of Britain.
00:01 GMT – Brazil registers 555 coronavirus deaths
Brazil has registered an additional 555 deaths attributable to the novel coronavirus over the last 24 hours and another 24,578 confirmed cases, Reuters news agency reported, quoting the country’s health ministry.
The South American nation has now registered 87,004 deaths and 2,419,091 total confirmed cases.
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Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Ted Regencia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
You can find all the key developments from yesterday, July 26, here.
