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Britain confirmed 2,988 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, its highest level since May 23.
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India recorded more than 90,000 cases of the new coronavirus, a global daily record, according to data from the federal health ministry.
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Australia’s coronavirus hotspot state of Victoria on Sunday extended a hard lockdown in its capital Melbourne by two weeks to the end of September as infection rates have declined more slowly than hoped.
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Protesters gathered in the Italian capital, Rome, to protest against the use of masks to help contain the spread of coronavirus. This as the country’s health ministry reported an increase of COVID-19 deaths, with 16 new fatalities, bringing the total to 35,534. At least 1,700 more cases were also reported, with the total at 276,338 infections.
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More than 26.9 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, and more than 880,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 17.9 million people have recovered.
Here are the latest updates:
Sunday, September 6
18:00 GMT – 44 percent of Greeks would snub coronavirus vaccine: Poll
Nearly one in two Greeks would skip a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, according to a poll published Sunday, with nearly 20 percent opposing masks as well.
Forty-four percent of respondents on average said they would not use the vaccine if it were approved and freely available, the study in To Vima weekly said.
The poll of 1,000 respondents was carried out by Greek firm Metron Analysis.
The Greek government has said that any Covid-19 vaccine would not be compulsory but it will be “strongly recommended.”
17:00 GMT – France reports 7,071 new daily COVID-19 infections
French health authorities reported 7,071 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Sunday, down from Saturday’s 8,550 and also below Friday’s peak of 8,975.
Friday’s figure had set a new all-time high of daily additional infections for the country. The number of people hospitalised for the disease over the last seven days reached 1,704, of which 288 were in intensive care units.
The number of people in France who have died from COVID-19 increased by 3 to 30,701, and the cumulative number of cases now totals 324,777.
France must stay vigilant as more people will be hospitalised in intensive care units in the next two weeks, the country’s health minister said on Saturday [Charles Platiau/Reuters]16:00 GMT – UK records nearly 3,000 new coronavirus cases
Britain recorded 2,988 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, its highest level since May 23, taking its total to 347,152 infections. On Saturday, UK reported 1,813 cases.
The number of fatalities, however, remained at a low level, with two deaths reported on Sunday.
At least 41,551 people have died from the virus in the UK, according to government data.
15:00 GMT – Pope says gossip, chatter are ‘a plague more awful than Covid-19’
Gossip and chatter are a “plague more awful than Covid-19,” the pope said during his Sunday Angelus prayers, delivered from the window of the Vatican on St Peter’s Square.
“When we see a brother or sister make a mistake or with a defect, the first thing we do is go tell others about it. We gossip,” the pope said.
He said that gossip hurts the community of the church, comparing it to the devil, the liar “who wants to divide the church.”
The pope called on the faithful to make an effort and to avoid gossip [Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters]
14:20 GMT – Qatar reports 231 new coronavirus infections
Qatar reported 231 new infections on Sunday, the public health ministry announced, taking the country’s total caseload to 120,095.
The ministry also reported the death of one person taking the Qatar’s death toll from COVID-19 to 203.
The total number of people who have recovered from the virus in Qatar stands at 116,998, according to the country’s public health ministry [EPA]
14:00 GMT – Russia reports more than 5,100 new infections
Russia reported 5,195 new coronavirus cases on Sunday taking its total to 1,025,505, the fourth largest in the world.
The Russian coronavirus crisis centre said 61 deaths had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 17,820.
Only US, Brazil and India have reported more cases than Russia [Pavel Golovkin/AP]
13:45 GMT – Abu Dhabi’s Etihad extends wage cuts until end of year
Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has extended the period of reduced pay for their staff until the end of the year, a spokeswoman for the carrier said on Sunday.
Employees will have their salary reduced by 10 percent from September until the end of December, she said, compared to an earlier cut of between 25 percent and 50 percent which ended last month.
The state-owned airline had resumed paying allowances, the spokeswoman said. It had earlier stopped paying transport and other job-related allowances.
Etihad and rival Emirates have laid off staff and asked employees to take months of voluntary unpaid leave [Jacky Naegelen/Reuters]
13:35 GMT –
Hello, this is Hamza Mohamed in Doha taking over from my colleague Tamila Varshalomidze.
11:50 GMT – Berlusconi in ‘most delicate phase’ of coronavirus
Silvio Berlusconi’s doctor says that the hospitalised former Italian prime minister is responding “optimally” to COVID-19 treatment, but that he belongs to the most vulnerable category of patients and is in “the most delicate phase” of the virus.
Dr Alberto Zangrillo, who is head of intensive care at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, repeated that he nevertheless remained “cautiously optimistic” about Berlusconi’s recovery.
“The patient is responding optimally to treatment,” he said. “This doesn’t mean we can claim victory because, as you know, he belongs to the most fragile category” given his age.
11:00 GMT – France puts more departments on COVID-19 high alert
French authorities have placed seven more departments covering major cities such as Lille, Strasbourg and Dijon on high alert as increases in COVID-19 infections accelerate, the government said.
Of France’s 101 mainland and overseas departments, 28 are now considered “red zones” where authorities will be able to impose exceptional measures to slow the number of new coronavirus cases.
The move comes as France reported a record of nearly 9,000 daily cases on Friday, and a further 8,550 cases in the past 24 hours on Saturday, when the nationwide test positivity rate increased to 4.7 percent.
09:53 GMT – Reports: Italy to extend coronavirus measures
The Italian government plans to extend measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus through the end of September, including requiring people to wear masks and maintain social-distancing, according to media reports.
Many of the current measures are set to expire on Monday. However, an updated decree is expected to be published shortly.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is planning to extend the measures to combat the virus until September 30, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported.
Protesters rally against the Italian government’s health policy in Rome [Vincenzo Pinto/AFP]
09:03 GMT – Coronavirus death toll surpasses 1,000 mark in Israel
The total number of COVID-19-related deaths in Israel has surpassed the level of 1,000, the country’s health ministry confirmed.
A total of 1,010 people have died of coronavirus in the country of 9.2 million inhabitants, it said in its latest statistics published on Sunday morning.
09:00 GMT – Indonesia reports 3,444 new coronavirus cases
Indonesia reported 3,444 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 194,109, data from the health ministry website showed.
The Southeast Asian country also reported 85 new deaths, taking the total to 8,025, the highest coronavirus death toll in Southeast Asia.
06:31 GMT – India reports global daily record of new coronavirus cases
India has recorded more than 90,000 cases of the new coronavirus, a global daily record, according to data from the federal health ministry.
There were 90,632 new cases in the 24 hours to Sunday, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, while the number of deaths rose by 1,065 to 70,626.
The country is set to pass Brazil on Monday as the second-most affected country by total infections and will be behind only the United States, which has 6.4 million cases and nearly 193,000 deaths.
06:03 GMT
Hello, this is Tamila Varshalomidze in Doha, Qatar, taking over the live updates from my colleague Ted Regencia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
People are seen enjoying the sun at St Kilda beach in Melbourne, Australia [Daniel Pockett/Getty Images]
05:05 GMT – Australia’s COVID-19 epicentre extends hard lockdown
Australia’s coronavirus hotspot state of Victoria on Sunday extended a hard lockdown in its capital Melbourne by two weeks to the end of September as infection rates have declined more slowly than hoped, according to the Reuters news agency.
State Premier Daniel Andrews on Sunday extended the hard lockdown, in place since August 2, to September 28 with a slight relaxation, and mapped out a gradual easing of restrictions over the following two months.
Melbourne’s stage 4 restrictions, which had been due to end on September 13, shut most of the economy, limited people’s movements to a 5km (3-mile) radius around their homes for one hour a day and imposed a night-time curfew.
“We cannot open up at this time. If we were to we would lose control very quickly,” Andrews said at a televised media conference.
Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, has been the epicentre of a second wave of the novel coronavirus, now accounting for about 75 percent of the country’s 26,282 cases and 90 percent of its 753 deaths.
The state on Sunday reported 63 new COVID-19 infections and five deaths, down from a peak of 725 new cases on August 5.
04:32 GMT – Jakarta ‘running out of cemetery space’ over COVID-19 pandemic
A cemetery in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, is reportedly expecting to run out of space as the number of deaths linked to the coronavirus continues to rise.
Nadi, the manager of East Jakarta’s Pondok Ranggon cemetery, was quoted by Indonesia’s Kompas as saying he expects the burial site to run out of space by October, with only 1,000 spots left.
In August, the cemetery reportedly had an average of 27 people buried daily – including those who died of coronavirus.
Pondok Ranggon was designated as a COVID-19 burial site in March, and since then more than 2,600 fatalities have been buried there.
Indonesia has officially reported more than 190,000 cases with almost 8,000 dead.
04:02 GMT – Officials call for caution as US marks Labor Day
Officials across the US are urging Americans to take precautions while celebrating extended Labor Day holiday to avoid spreading the coronavirus.
In New Mexico, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said while the state “has made great progress” in the fight against the spread of COVID-19, the holiday weekend starting on Saturday will be key to keeping the spread of the virus low and to ensure students can return safely to school this year.
In California, San Diego State University officials issued a Labor Day weekend stay-at-home order for students living on campus to limit the spread of the disease, as they return for the school year.
The US has an estimated 6.25 million coronavirus cases, with more than 2.3 million declared as recovered. More than 188,500 people have died of the disease in the US – the highest number of fatalities worldwide.
03:42 GMT – Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 988 to 249,985
Germany’s centre for infectious diseases reported on Sunday at least 988 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 249,985 infections.
The Robert Koch Institute also reported one death, with the total now at 9,325 since the pandemic spread in the country in late January.
03:05 GMT – South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases stay below 200 for fourth day
Of the new infections reported, 152 were local cases and a majority of them came from the greater Seoul area, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [Lee Jin-man/AP]
South Korea reported 167 cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, marking the fourth straight day of less than 200 new infections, according to Yonhap news agency.
Of the total new infections, 152 were local cases and a majority of them came from the greater Seoul area, data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) showed.
The country’s total cases have now risen to 21,177, although more than 16,000 have fully recovered. It also added one more death, raising the death toll to 334. The country’s virus death rate is now at 1.58 percent.
02:30 GMT – Mainland China reports 10 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths
China’s National Health Commission reported on Sunday at least 10 new COVID-19 cases as of the end of Saturday.
The health agency said all new cases were imported, marking the 21st consecutive day with no locally transmitted infections, according to Reuters news agency.
The number of new asymptomatic cases rose to 17 from eight a day earlier. China does not count asymptomatic infections as confirmed cases.
The total confirmed COVID-19 cases for mainland China now stands at 85,122, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
01:49 GMT – Italy’s ex-PM Berlusconi ‘recovering’ from coronavirus
The personal doctor of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has expressed “cautious but reasonable optimism” for the politician’s recovery from the coronavirus.
The 83-year-old Berlusconi is hospitalised in Milan after testing positive this week.
Dr Alberto Zangrillo said in a written statement on Saturday that Berlusconi’s clinical condition remains stable.
Zangrillo said on Friday, several hours after Berlusconi was admitted to San Raffaele hospital, his patient has an early-stage lung infection and was breathing on his own.
01:30 GMT – Mexico records 122,765 additional deaths during pandemic -health ministry
Mexico’s health ministry has recorded an extra 122,765 deaths above expectations during the pandemic up to August.
The report about excess mortality rates could suggest Mexico’s true coronavirus toll could be much higher, Reuters news agency reported.
Mexico has recorded 67,326 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus, including 475 news cases on Saturday. It also recorded 6,319 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total infections to at least 629,400.
00:15 GMT – Brazil reports 30,168 coronavirus cases, 682 deaths
Brazil’s ministry of health has reported recorded 30,168 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s total infections to at least 4.1 million.
The country also reported 682 additional fatalities, bringing the death toll to 126,203.
Brazil ranks second to the US in the number of cases and infections worldwide.
00:05 GMT – Italy sees resurgence in coronavirus deaths
With nearly 1,700 more cases Saturday, Italy has confirmed a total of 276,338 infections [Remo Casilli/Reuters]
Protesters gathered in the Italian capital, Rome, to protest against the use of masks to help contain the spread of coronavirus.
This as the daily number of coronavirus deaths in Italy has been rising, with 16 registered Saturday by the Italian health ministry.
The death toll is five more than the previous day. However, those numbers are dramatically lower than in the early weeks of the pandemic in the nation, when hundreds of people were dying daily, according to an AP news agency analysis.
With nearly 1,700 more cases Saturday, Italy has confirmed a total of 276,338 infections. Most of the recent cases have been linked to popular holiday locales, particularly among those who vacationed on the island of Sardinia.
Italy’s known death toll stands at 35,534.
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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.
For key developments from yesterday, September 5, go here.
