Mexico’s coronavirus death toll tops 50,000: Live updates

• Nearly 300,000 Americans could be dead from the new coronavirus by December, health experts in the United States have forecasted.

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

• Meanwhile, Mexico’s coronavirus deaths have passed 50,000, as the government faces criticism of its handling of the crisis and the economic fallout.

• At least 19 million people around the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19, while the global death toll surpassed 714,000 people. More than 11.5 million have recovered.

Here are the latest updates:

Friday, August 7

09:45 GMT – Russia’s coronavirus vaccine undergoes final testing phase  

A Russian state laboratory’s vaccine for the novel coronavirus is undergoing its final testing phase and is expected to be registered next week, a senior health official said.

“Currently it is in the final testing phase, which is extremely important. We need to understand that the vaccine will be safe,” Deputy Health Minister Oleg Grinev said in comments carried by the Russian news agency Interfax.

Another senior health official had said last month that the vaccine was expected to be mass produced in September. 

09:40 GMT – GAVI signs vaccine deal for developing world

The vaccines alliance GAVI says it has agreed to a deal with the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation and the world’s biggest vaccine producer, India’s Serum Institute, to speed the manufacturing and delivery of up to 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to developing countries in 2021.

The collaboration will give upfront capital to the Serum Institute so that once any effective COVID-19 vaccine is licensed, the company can mass produce the shots at scale, as early as the first half of 2021.

In a statement, GAVI CEO Dr Seth Berkley said the deal was aimed at making sure rich countries would not be the only ones with access to coronavirus vaccines.

09:00 GMT – Are vaccine efforts against COVID-19 succeeding?

Global health and scientific communities are racing to develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus in just 12 to 18 months – a process that can normally take between five to 10 years.

Read our latest Doctor’s Note by WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan on the latest work being done to help protect against the novel coronavirus.

08:30 GMT – ICC reports surge in video views during pandemic

The International Cricket Council released figures showing it had 1.65 billion video views on its Facebook channel in the first half of 2020, saying it “topped the rankings in terms of video consumption among leading sports bodies” on the social media platform.

Cricket was shuttered globally from late March until last month, when host England beat West Indies 2-1 in a three-test series that was played inside bio-secure venues in Southampton and Manchester.

The ICC, citing statistics from the CrowdTangle analytics tool, said daily video consumption on its Facebook page increased from 3 million minutes viewed to 15 million minutes per day during the lockdown.

08:20 GMT – Latest coronavirus figures

Israel: 80,431 cases (1,674), 578 deaths (2)

Indonesia: 121,226 cases (2,473), 5,593 deaths (72)

Russia: 877,135 cases (5,241), 14,725 deaths (119)

Philippines: 122,754 cases (3,379), 2,168 deaths (24)

07:45 GMT – Hong Kong to offer free COVID-19 testing for residents

Hong Kong will offer free voluntary coronavirus testing for residents, leader Carrie Lam said, as the global financial hub races to contain a resurgence of the virus over the past month.

The plan, which will enable city-wide testing for the first time, is likely to be implemented in two weeks at the earliest, Chief Executive Lam said.

“The situation in Hong Kong is still critical, with the number of cases remaining high,” Lam told reporters.

Since January almost 3,900 people have been infected in Hong Kong, 46 of whom have died.

07:40 GMT – Africa surpasses one million coronavirus cases

More than a million people across Africa have now been confirmed to have had the new coronavirus, with health experts warning that the peak of the pandemic has yet to hit the continent.

Here’s animated graphic showing how the coronavirus spread across the African nations.

Read more here. 

07:30 GMT – Switzerland signs agreement with Moderna for vaccine

Switzerland has signed an agreement with Moderna to secure early access to the COVID-19 vaccine the US biotech company is developing, the government said. 

Switzerland will get 4.5 million doses of the vaccine, enough to vaccinate 2.25 million people if as expected two doses are needed per patient.

The government is also talking to other vaccine companies and has allocated 300 million Swiss francs ($329m) to the project.

06:45 GMT – South Korean doctors strike over medical school plan

Thousands of young doctors in South Korea began a strike in protest of government medical policy, causing concerns about treatment of patients amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The striking doctors are interns and resident doctors, who oppose the government’s plan to expand admissions to medical schools to resolve the shortage of doctors in South Korea.

The doctors call the plan “a populist policy” that would waste taxpayers’ money and nurture low-quality medical schools. In a statement posted on their website, they accused the government of making little financial support for their practicing programs and said that they work with an extremely low salary.

06:30 GMT – India’s coronavirus cases cross two million

India’s coronavirus cases have passed two million, hitting another grim milestone in the pandemic that has killed more than 41,000 people in the world’s second-most populous country.

The health ministry said 62,538 cases – the highest one-day jump – were reported in the past 24 hours, raising the nation’s total to 2.03 million. Also, 886 new deaths were reported raising the death toll to 41,585.

Read more here. 

---

Hello, this is Saba Aziz in Doha, Qatar. I’m taking over the live blog from my colleague Zaheena Rasheed.

---

04:34 GMT – Australia’s Victoria reports 450 new cases

Australia’s second-most populous state of Victoria has reported 11 coronavirus-related deaths and 450 new infections in the last 24 hours, compared with eight eight and 471 cases a day earlier.

Victoria reported its deadliest day of the coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday with 15 deaths and a record daily rise of 725 cases.

03:12 GMT – Ohio governor tests negative after earlier positive test

Mike DeWine, the governor of Ohio, tested has negative for COVID-19 after testing positive earlier on Thursday ahead of a planned visit with US President Donald Trump.

In a tweet, DeWine said his wife, Fran DeWine, also tested negative, as did staff members.

The governor, who had cancelled his meeting with Trump, said the earlier positive result came from a rapid antigen test, while the second negative result came from a more sensitive PCR test. 

UPDATE: In a second COVID-19 test administered today in Columbus, Governor Mike DeWine has tested negative for COVID-19. First Lady Fran DeWine and staff members have also all tested negative. pic.twitter.com/0Ixap90mJg

— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) August 7, 2020

02:32 GMT – Democrats, White House see little progress in relief talks

Democratic leaders in the US Congress and top aides to President Donald Trump have failed to make substantial progress on a new coronavirus aid bill, but both sides expressed a willingness to continue the negotiations.

“If we conclude tomorrow that there’s not a compromise position on the major issues, the president has alternatives in executive orders,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters.

“We’re still very far apart” on key issues, he said.

Their differences centred around new aid to state and local governments and continuing the additional $600 a week federally-backed unemployment benefits agreed to earlier in the crisis.

01:29 GMT – University of Washington forecasts 300,000 deaths in US

Nearly 300,000 Americans could be dead from COVID-19 by December 1, according to a forecast by health experts at the University of Washington, although they have said 70,000 lives could be saved if people were scrupulous about wearing masks.

“We’re seeing a rollercoaster in the United States. It appears that people are wearing masks and socially distancing more frequently as infections increase, then after a while as infections drop, people let their guard down,” said Dr Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. 

The US death toll stands at more than 159,000, the most of any country in the world, with 4.8 million known cases.

01:08 GMT – Mexico’s death toll tops 50,000

Mexico’s health ministry has reported 6,590 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 819 deaths, bringing the country’s totals to 462,690 infections and 50,517 deaths.

Mexico now has the third-highest death toll in the world, after Brazil, which is approaching 100,000, and the US, which is approaching 160,000.

00:39 GMT – Brazil to set aside $356m for vaccine

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has issued a decree to provide 1.9 billion reais ($356m) in funds to purchase and eventually produce a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca PLC and Oxford University researchers.

Brazil’s Acting Health Minister General Eduardo Pazuello said the vaccine could be available for Brazilians by December or January.

“January is the best bet. The vaccine is the solution to end the pandemic,” he said, adding that Brazil would initially receive 100 million doses, which would allow for the vaccination of half the country’s population, and then to produce the vaccine locally.

00:22 GMT – US lifts global health coronavirus travel advisory

The US State Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have lifted global advisories recommending US citizens avoid all international travel because of the coronavirus pandemic, and instead issued many high-level warnings for individual countries.

“With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice,” the State Department said in a statement lifting its “Do Not Travel” advisory.

The CDC also dropped its global advisory recommending against all nonessential international travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but nearly all countries remain on its highest Level 3 advisory to avoid all non-essential travel.

A few countries, including Thailand, New Zealand and Fiji, were put on a low-risk Level 1 advisory.

00:12 GMT – London Marathon to feature only elite runners

The pandemic-delayed London Marathon will be staged on October 4 using a different route than usual and with only elite runners participating.

Rather than starting in Greenwich in east London, there will be a looped 42.2-kilometre (26.2-mile) course featuring 19.8 laps around St James’s Park within a biosecure bubble with spectators excluded. It will finish in the traditional place in front of Buckingham Palace.

“Despite all our efforts, the fantastic support from all of our partners and the progress that has been made on planning for the return of smaller mass participation events that are not on the roads, it has not been possible to go ahead with a mass socially distanced walk or run,” said Hugh Brasher, event director of the London Marathon.

---

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

For key developments from yesterday, August 6, go here.