(Reuters) – California and Texas saw record spikes in new COVID-19 infections on Monday, and Los Angeles reported an “alarming” one-day surge in America’s second-largest city that put it over 100,000 cases.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.
* For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.
* Eikon users, see MacroVitals (cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?navid=1592404098) for a case tracker and a summary of developments.
AMERICAS
* More than 2.6 million people have been infected with the novel coronavirus in the United States and 126,126 have died, according to a Reuters tally as of 0325 GMT on Tuesday.
* The National Hockey League said 26 players have tested positive for COVID-19, including 15 who reported to team facilities for “Phase 2 activities.”
* Nearly 300 cases of a rare, life-threatening syndrome in children and adolescents associated with the novel coronavirus have been identified in the United States in two studies in The New England Journal of Medicine.
* Canada is over the worst of the outbreak, but a spike in cases in the United States and elsewhere shows Canadians must remain vigilant as the economy reopens, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
* Brazil registered 692 more deaths and 24,052 new cases. The country still faces a “big challenge” to curb the coronavirus pandemic and should do more to integrate its efforts at different levels of government, a top World Health Organization official said. Mexico reported 3,805 new infections and 473 new deaths.
* Panama registered a record 1,099 new cases and while deaths climbed by 16.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* The state of South Australia cancelled its scheduled reopening to other parts of the nation, citing more infections in neighbouring Victoria.
* Thailand will allow pubs and bars to reopen on Wednesday and plans to let in some foreign travellers.
* Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered his government to prepare restrictions similar to the hard lockdown that the nation imposed in March-May after a recent sharp rise in infections.
* A new flu virus found in Chinese pigs has become more infectious to humans and needs to be watched closely in case it becomes a potential “pandemic virus”, a study said, although experts said there is no imminent threat.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Iran on Monday recorded 162 deaths, its highest number of fatalities within a 24-hour period.
* Bahrain said it would pay 50% of salaries for private company workers in sectors that were hard-hit by the pandemic.
* Nigeria will let people travel between its states outside curfew hours from July 1, as authorities moved to relax some coronavirus restrictions.
* Senegalese President Macky Sall on Monday said he had decided to lift a state of emergency over COVID-19 to support the struggling economy.
EUROPE
* Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out his plan to spend the British economy out of its crisis, with a speech on Tuesday promising to fast-track 5 billion pounds ($6.15 billion) of infrastructure investment.
* A lockdown was imposed on Monday in the city of Leicester, which has higher COVID-19 infection rates than anywhere else in the country.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Gilead Sciences Inc priced its COVID-19 antiviral remdesivir at $2,340 per patient for wealthier nations.
* Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for human trials, making it India’s first domestic candidate to get the green light from the government’s drug regulator.
* A combination of antiviral drugs used to treat HIV had no beneficial effect in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in a large-scale randomised trial, British scientists said.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
* Asian shares rose after data showed China’s manufacturing sector grew more than expected in June, a hopeful sign for a global economy still struggling to recover from the impact of the coronavirus crisis. [MKTS/GLOB]
* Argentina’s economic activity plunged 26.4% in April, the country’s official statistics agency said on Monday, the worst monthly fall on record.
(Compiled by Aditya Soni, Linda Pasquini, Anna Rzhevkina and Uttaresh.V; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Shounak Dasgupta and Sriraj Kalluvila)
