Mexico warns of ‘prolonged pandemic’: Coronavirus live updates

• France has recorded over 2,200 confirmed coronavirus infections, a new daily record since the lockdown was lifted in June.

• The total number of United States coronavirus deaths surged past 160,000 with more than 4.9 million confirmed infections across the country.

• More than two million people have now been confirmed infected in India, which is the country the third worst hit by COVID-19. 

• At least 19.3 million people around the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19, while the global death toll crossed 718,000. More than 11.7 million have recovered.

Here are the latest updates:

Saturday, August 8 

02:19 GMT – El Salvador court rebukes president’s decree to reopen economy

The constitutional chamber of El Salvador’s Supreme Court of Justice declared an executive decree that would establish protocols for the gradual reopening of the economy as unconstitutional.

The court said President Nayib Bukele’s decree “contradict constitutional parameters established” earlier to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.

“In every country in the world, governments are ordering reopening, gradually, to control the pandemic,” Bukele said on Twitter. “In El Salvador, today that is also unconstitutional.”

02:00 GMT – Mexican president defends record

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the president of Mexico, defended his government’s record fighting the coronavirus and ruled out a change in strategy after the official death toll surged past 50,000.

The Latin American nation of 128 million recently overtook Britain to become the third hardest-hit country in terms of total virus deaths, after Brazil and the United States.  

But Lopez Obrador said that in terms of deaths relative to population size, “we have not been so hard hit”, and on that basis, Mexico ranks fifth in the Americas, behind the US, Brazil, Chile and Peru.    

“And if we compare ourselves with Europe, there are more deaths in Spain, France and England than in Mexico,” he said.

01:41 GMT – Rare syndrome linked to COVID-19 found in nearly 600 US

Nearly 600 children were admitted to US hospitals with a rare inflammatory syndrome associated with the novel coronavirus over four months during the peak of the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) is a rare but severe condition that shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, including fever, rashes, swollen glands and, in severe cases, heart inflammation.

It has been reported in children and adolescent patients about two to four weeks after the onset of COVID-19. The CDC report said state health departments across the country reported a total of 570 MIS-C patients diagnosed with the illness from March 2 to July 18.

Among the MIS-C cases, all patients tested positive for COVID-19 and 10 died, the CDC said in the report.

00:45 GMT – Mexico warns of ‘prolonged pandemic’ as cases rise

Mexico posted 6,717 newly confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, increasing the country’s accumulated total to 469,407.

Officials also said the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths rose by 794 to a total of 51,311.

Hopes for a significant decline in cases have been frustrated by continued high infection rates, with Assistant Health Secretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell warning that “this is going to be a prolonged pandemic”.

00:13 GMT – Italian cabinet approves 25-billion-euro stimulus package

Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte’s cabinet approved a stimulus package totalling 25 billion euros ($29bn) to revive an economy battered by the coronavirus crisis.

The plan, which has to be approved by parliament, allows for greater tax benefits for Italy’s southern regions, calls for cruise liners to resume sailing from August 15 and for trade fairs to take place from September.

It also extends emergency monthly payments to vulnerable families ranging from 400 to 800 euros, as well as a sum of 500 million euros allotted for overtime payments to stretched health workers.

“We are protecting jobs, we are supporting workers, we are reducing the tax burden, we are helping the regions,” Conte told reporters.

He also said social distancing and face masks would be mandatory until September 7, adding: “These are the minimum rules.”

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives. 

For all the key developments from yesterday, August 7, go here.