(Reuters) – Britain, which has the highest official death toll in Europe from COVID-19, is grappling with more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases a day and scientists have warned the “worst-case” scenario of 80,000 dead could be exceeded.
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 COVID-19: MacroVitals https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.
EUROPE
* Britain’s Prince William contracted COVID-19 in April at a similar time to his father Prince Charles, a source said.
* Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has tested positive for the coronavirus, his press office said.
* Italy will tighten restrictions but is holding back from reintroducing a nationwide lockdown, its prime minister said as infections, hospital admissions and deaths surge.
* A growing number of Russians are unwilling to be inoculated against COVID-19 once a vaccine becomes widely available, a pollster said.
* Greece will impose a two-week lockdown in northern regions and suspend flights.
* The Hungarian government will decide later this week whether to impose new restrictions to curb coronavirus infections, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s cabinet chief said.
* Medical students, retired nurses, volunteers and Prague’s mayor have heeded a call to help Czech hospitals battle one of Europe’s highest infection rates.
AMERICAS
* The pandemic and a higher tax burden are luring Argentines to stable neighbour Uruguay, which has one of the lowest infection rates in Latin America.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Days after a 17-year-old girl tested positive for COVID-19 in a remote part of western China last week, health authorities said they had tested over 4.7 million people in the region.
* South Korea has accepted just 164 asylum seekers this year, from nearly 6,000 who applied despite coronavirus travel curbs.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Iran reported a record high COVID death toll, as a ban on travel in and out of major cities came into force.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* A small but key UK study found that “cellular immunity” to the virus is present after six months in people who had mild or asymptomatic COVID-19, suggesting some level of protection.
* CureVac said its experimental vaccine triggered an immune response in humans, putting it on track to start mass testing this year.
* Russian drugmaker Pharmasyntez has asked the Kremlin for permission to produce a generic version of U.S. firm Gilead Sciences’s COVID-19 treatment remdesivir without patent.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Shares recovered globally from one-month lows as strengthening factory data in China and Europe offset news of new lockdowns, while investors prepared for more volatility from the U.S. presidential election. [MKTS/GLOB]
* The International Monetary Fund warned G20 economies the crisis was not over, calling on the United States, Britain and other countries to increase the fiscal spending currently planned.
* Europe’s rich north is able to prop up essential parts of the economy with cash that will never have to be paid back while the poorer south is more reliant on providing short-term relief in the form loans and temporary tax holidays.
* The pandemic and a faster transition to renewable energy sources will have a permanent impact on global oil demand, Norway’s biggest independent energy consultancy predicted.
* Euro zone finance ministers will on Tuesday discuss how to respond to the darkening economic outlook.
(Compiled by Sarah Morland, Anna Rzhevkina and Vinay Dwivedi; Edited by Susan Fenton and Shounak Dasgupta)
