New Zealand defers parliament dissolution over coronavirus: Live

• The WHO has not received enough information on the Russian COVID-19 vaccine to evaluate it, according to Jarbas Barbosa, assistant director of its Americas branch, the PAHO.

• President Vladimir Putin says Russia has developed the first vaccine offering “sustainable immunity” against the coronavirus.

• Worldwide coronavirus cases have surpassed 20 million, with Brazil and Mexico reporting a combined 27,000 infections in just one day. More than 12.4 million have recovered, and almost 738,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Here are the latest updates:

Wednesday, August 12

06:57 GMT – German health minister says he’s sceptical about Russian COVID-19 vaccine

German Health Minister Jens Spahn said he was sceptical about Russia becoming the first country to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine, saying it was key to have a safe, tested product rather than just being first.

Russia’s vaccine, which will be called “Sputnik V” in homage to the world’s first satellite launched by the Soviet Union, has not yet completed its final trials. Its regulatory approval came after less than two months of human testing.

“It’s not about being first somehow – it’s about having an effective, tested and therefore safe vaccine,” Spahn told Deutschlandfunk radio.

“In order to have trust in such a vaccine, I think it is very, very important, even during a pandemic, to properly do studies, the relevant tests and especially to make them public. The problem is that we know very little about it as the Russian authorities are not being very transparent,” he said.

06:39 GMT – Facebook removes seven million posts spreading coronavirus misinformation

Facebook removed more than seven million posts in the second quarter containing coronavirus misinformation that could potentially harm people’s health, the social media giant said.

The company also placed warning labels on some 98 million pieces of dubious, but less-dangerous content on the virus, Facebook’s vice president of integrity Guy Rosen said.

“While our technology for identifying and removing violating content is improving, there will continue to be areas where we rely on people to both review content and train our technology,” Facebook said in a blog post. 

06:24 GMT – New Zealand to make decision on coronavirus restrictions Friday 

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her cabinet will decide on Friday on the next steps with regards to the new restrictions placed across the country, as it reported four new probable cases of coronavirus in the community.

Of the four new probable cases, two are work colleagues of a man who tested positive, and two are related to the household that one of the cases stayed at.

05:41 GMT – Former Indian President critical after surgery, positive virus test

Former Indian president, Pranab Mukherjee, who has coronavirus, is in a critical condition following surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain, an official broadcaster reported.

Mukherjee, 84, was on ventilator support at the Army Research and Referral Hospital in New Delhi, state-run All India Radio said.

He was admitted to the hospital on Monday, when tests revealed a large brain clot for which he underwent emergency life-saving surgery.

Mukherjee on Monday tweeted that he had also tested positive for coronavirus after arriving at the hospital and urged those who had come in contact with him to self-isolate and get tested.

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Hello, this is Arwa Ibrahim in Doha, taking over from my colleague Zaheena Rasheed.

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04:53 GMT – Cathay Pacific reports first-half loss of $1.27 bn

Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific said it lost 9.9 billion Hong Kong dollars ($1.27bn) in the first half of this year after border closures triggered by the pandemic grounded its fleets.

“The first six months of 2020 were the most challenging that the Cathay Pacific Group has faced in its more than 70-year history,” chairman Patrick Healy said in a stark statement.  

“The global health crisis has decimated the travel industry, and the future remains highly uncertain,” he added.

03:55 GMT – China’s community cases hit single digits

China’s newly confirmed community transmitted cases of coronavirus fell into the single digits on Wednesday, while Hong Kong saw another 33 cases of infection.

The National Health Commission said all nine new cases had been found in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, whose capital Urumqi has been at the centre of China’s latest major outbreak.

Another 25 cases were brought by Chinese travellers arriving from abroad.

03:18 GMT – New Zealand considers freight as possible source of new cluster

New Zealand officials are investigating the possibility that its first COVID-19 cases in more than three months were imported by freight.

Ashley Bloomfield, director-general of health, said health officials are “working hard to put together pieces of the puzzle on how” the four members of one family got infected in Auckland.

Investigations were zeroing in on the potential the virus was imported by freight and Bloomfield said surface testing was under way in an Auckland cool store where a man from the infected family worked.

02:45 GMT – S Korea, US to hold ‘smaller’ military drills

South Korea and the US will kick off their annual joint military drills this week but without mobilising US-based troops after scaling back the programme due to coronavirus concerns, according to South Korean media.

The Yonhap news agency said exercises will be held from August 16-28 but on a reduced scale, though the timeframe was extended by a few days to keep participants spread out and minimise night activities.

The exercises usually begin in August and involve tens of thousands of soldiers from both sides.

01:48 GMT – Argentina death toll tops 5,000

Argentina’s death toll from the coronavirus reached 5,004 on Tuesday amid a surge in cases despite months of lockdown since March 20.

Officials had previously relaxed restrictions in many parts of Argentine, a move blamed for the recent spike.

The country recorded 7,043 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, pushing the total confirmed infections to 260,911, surpassing the total caseload in Italy.

01:01 GMT – Mexico sees near-record deaths

Mexico reported a near-record 926 confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, bringing the country’s accumulated total to 53,929.

The Health Department reported 6,686 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total confirmed cases so far to 492,522.

00:28 GMT – New Zealand defers dissolution of parliament

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern deferred the dissolution of parliament to make way for a general election until Monday, following the latest outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.

Parliament was due to be dissolved on Wednesday morning – the first step towards holding the general election scheduled for September 19.

Ardern said no decision had been made yet on postponing the election.

00:19 GMT – Australia’s Victoria logs deadliest day of pandemic

Australia’s second-most populous state of Victoria reported its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic with 21 fatalities in the last 24 hours and 410 new cases.

The state reported 19 deaths from the coronavirus, its previous one-day high in casualties, on Tuesday and Monday. It logged 331 cases a day earlier.

Victoria last week imposed a night curfew, tightened restrictions on people’s daily movements and ordered large parts of the local economy to close to slow the spread of coronavirus.

00:04 GMT – US inks $1.5bn vaccine deal with Moderna

The US entered an agreement with drugmaker Moderna Inc to acquire 100 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine for approximately $1.5bn, the company and the White House said.

Moderna’s price comes out to about $30.50 per person for a two-dose regimen, its vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, is one of the few that have already advanced to final-stage testing.

The US government has allocated a total of at least $10.9bn for the development and manufacturing of a coronavirus vaccine and has already ordered 100 million vaccine doses from Johnson Johnson, Novavax, Pfizer and Sanofi and 300 million from AstraZeneca.

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 11, go here.