(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump was in a military hospital on Saturday for treatment after testing positive for COVID-19, an extraordinary development that upended the presidential race a month before the Nov. 3 election.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread of COVID-19, open https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/ in an external browser.
* Eikon users, see MacroVitals cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.
AMERICAS
* U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, next in line for the Oval Office, tested negative for COVID-19, hours after Trump announced that he was infected and went into quarantine, Pence’s spokesman said on Friday.
* Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis shows the importance of taking the pandemic seriously, telling Americans that wearing masks is more important than being a “tough guy.”
ASIA-PACIFIC
* India’s coronavirus death toll passed 100,000 on Saturday, only the third country in the world to reach that milestone, after the United States and Brazil, and its epidemic shows no sign of abating.
* South Korean police mobilised hundreds of buses to head off any political rallies in Seoul on Saturday, with authorities determined to prevent another cluster of coronavirus cases emerging from a protest.
* Malaysia will not re-impose widespread restrictions on travel despite a recent spike in coronavirus infections, which a government minister said was partly caused by migrants from neighbouring countries.
EUROPE
* Russia reported 9,859 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the highest number of daily infections since May 15, when the outbreak was at its peak.
* Northumbria University, in northeast England, has been hit by a mass outbreak with at least 770 students testing positive for the virus.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Concealing one’s COVID-19 infection should carry the severest penalty, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday in announcing new measures to stem a rapid rise in cases.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* A major non-profit health emergencies group has set up a global laboratory network to assess data from potential COVID-19 vaccines, allowing scientists and drugmakers to compare them and speed up selection of the most effective shots.
* A mass roll-out of a COVID-19 vaccine in Britain could be finished in as little as three months, The Times reported, citing government scientists.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Global equity markets slumped and investors piled into safer gold and the Japanese yen after Trump and his wife tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Compiled by Frances Kerry)
