#	Country,Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
	World	19,795,061	262,524	728,795
1	USA	5,566,632	36,843	173,128
2	Brazil	3,340,197	22,365	107,879
3	India	2,647,316	58,108	51,045
4	Russia	922,853	4,969	15,685
5	South Africa	587,345	3,692	11,839
6	Peru	535,946	10,143	26,281
7	Mexico	517,714	6,345	56,543
8	Colombia	468,332	11,643	15,097
9	Chile	385,946	2,044	10,452
10	Spain	358,843		28,617
11	Iran	343,203	2,133	19,639
12	UK	318,484	1,040	41,366
13	Saudi Arabia	298,542	1,227	3,408
14	Argentina	294,569	5,469	5,703
15	Pakistan	288,717	670	6,168
16	Bangladesh	276,549	2,024	3,657
17	Italy	253,915	479	35,396
18	Turkey	249,309	1,192	5,974
19	Germany	224,997	519	9,290
20	France	218,536	3,015	30,410
21	Iraq	176,931	4,348	5,860
22	Philippines	161,253	3,420	2,665
23	Indonesia	139,549	2,081	6,150
24	Canada	122,087	198	9,026
25	Qatar	115,080	271	193
26	Kazakhstan	102,696	409	1,269
27	Ecuador	101,542	854	6,070
28	Bolivia	99,146	1,196	4,003
29	Egypt	96,475	139	5,160
30	Israel	92,680	447	685
31	Ukraine	91,356	1,637	2,070
32	Dominican Republic	86,309	764	1,453
33	China	84,827	19	4,634
34	Sweden	84,294		5,783
35	Oman	83,086	162	572
36	Panama	81,940	1,275	1,767
37	Belgium	77,869	756	9,935
38	Kuwait	76,205	508	501
39	Romania	70,461	1,087	2,991
40	Belarus	69,516	92	610
41	UAE	64,312	210	364
42	Netherlands	63,002	507	6,172
43	Guatemala	62,562	249	2,379
44	Poland	56,684	594	1,877
45	Singapore	55,747	86	27
46	Japan	54,714	1,137	1,088
47	Portugal	54,102	121	1,778
48	Honduras	49,979	512	1,567
49	Nigeria	49,068	298	975
50	Bahrain	46,835	405	170
51	Ghana	42,532	322	231
52	Morocco	42,489	1,472	658
53	Kyrgyzstan	41,856	211	1,495
54	Armenia	41,663	168	818
55	Algeria	38,583	450	1,370
56	Switzerland	38,124	200	1,991
57	Afghanistan	37,596	45	1,375
58	Uzbekistan	35,329	801	232
59	Azerbaijan	34,219	112	506
60	Venezuela	33,755	1,148	281
61	Moldova	30,183	278	896
62	Kenya	30,120	271	474
63	Ethiopia	29,876	982	528
64	Serbia	29,682	211	674
65	Costa Rica	28,465	728	294
66	Ireland	27,257	66	1,774
67	Nepal	26,660	641	104
68	Austria	23,370	191	728
69	Australia	23,288	253	396
70	El Salvador	22,912	293	612
71	Czechia	20,012	121	397
72	Cameroon	18,469		401
73	Ivory Coast	17,026	33	110
74	Palestine	16,534	381	110
75	Bosnia and Herzegovina	15,801		471
76	Denmark	15,617	134	621
77	S. Korea	15,318	279	305
78	Bulgaria	14,365	32	498
79	Madagascar	13,827	103	170
80	Sudan	11,894		773

 

 

Source：https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

 

 

Spanish regions ban smoking over Covid-19 risk

 

The Spanish region of Galicia has effectively banned smoking in public places over concerns it increases the risk of Covid-19 transmission.

It issued a blanket ban on smoking in the street and in public places, such as restaurants and bars, if social distancing is not possible.

The north-western region is the first to introduce such a measure, but the Canary Islands has since followed suit.

It comes as Spain faces the worst infection rate in western Europe.

Daily cases have risen from fewer than 150 in June to more than 1,500 throughout August. It recorded 1,690 new cases in the latest daily count on Wednesday, bringing the country's total to almost 330,000.

Galicia's smoking ban was announced in a news conference on Wednesday after experts recommended the measure to the regional government.

The move is supported by health ministry research, published last month, that outlined the link between smoking and the increased spread of coronavirus.

It said the risk was heightened because people project droplets - and potentially Covid-19 - when they exhale smoke.

It also said smokers risked infection in other ways, such as by touching their cigarette before bringing it to their mouth and by handling face masks when taking them on and off.

The research also pointed to the wider negative health effects of smoking. "It has been proven that tobacco use, in any of its forms, worsens the course of respiratory diseases," it said.

"Current evidence indicates that smoking is associated with... a higher risk of developing a severe form of symptoms," it added.

"Smoking with no limits... with people close by and without any social distancing [poses] a high risk of infection," regional President Alberto Núñez Feijóo told the news conference.

"We know that this is an unpopular measure for smokers," added Alberto Fernández Villar, a member of the clinical committee advising government, according to the El País newspaper. "But I believe we are in an exceptional situation."

Media captionThe impact of South Africa's alcohol and cigarette ban in lockdown

 

On Thursday, the Canary Islands announced a similar measure and banned smoking outdoors where social distancing cannot be guaranteed. It will come into force on Friday alongside another order that makes face masks mandatory in public spaces.

Officials in areas including Madrid, Andalusia and Valencia are also reported to be considering implementing smoking restrictions of their own.

Similar measures have been imposed elsewhere, such as in South Africa where the sale of tobacco was banned at the end of March.

It justified the ban on health grounds based on advice from its own medical experts as well as from the World Health Organization (WHO).

And in the UK, a survey showed that more than one million people had given up smoking since the Covid-19 pandemic hit. UK government advice says smokers may be at risk of more severe Covid-19 symptoms.

Doctors say smokers are more likely to get respiratory infections, and are more likely to develop complications such as pneumonia at a later stage.

Source: BBC

 

 

The U.S.’s second-largest school district has a broad testing program for the virus.

 

Amid alarm over the inadequacy of coronavirus testing across the nation, Los Angeles schools on Monday will begin a sweeping program to test hundreds of thousands of students and teachers, as the nation’s second-largest school district goes back to school — online.

The program, which will be rolled out over the next few months by the Los Angeles Unified School District, will test nearly 700,000 students and 75,000 employees as the district awaits permission from public health authorities to resume in-person instruction, said Austin Beutner, the district’s superintendent.

It appears to be the most ambitious testing initiative among major public school districts, most of which are also starting school remotely but have yet to announce detailed testing plans.

New York City, where the virus has been under control, is the only major school district in the country planning to welcome students back into classrooms part time this fall. The city is asking all staff members to be tested before school starts on Sept. 10 and has said it will provide expedited results.

The school district in Los Angeles, which announced in July that it would begin the year with only online instruction, was among the first in the nation to abandon plans for even a partial in-person return.

Since then, though reports of new infections appear to be slowly declining, public schools across the country have pulled back from more ambitious plans to reopen as case numbers have remained persistently high.

 

 

A South Korean pastor whose church is at the center of a new outbreak has tested positive for the virus.

The Rev. Jun Kwang-hoon leaves his house in Seoul in an ambulance on Monday.Credit...Hong Hae-In/Yonhap, via Associated Press

The Christian pastor accused by South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, of impeding the government’s effort to fight the coronavirus epidemic tested positive for the virus on Monday, officials said.

The pastor, the Rev. Jun Kwang-hoon, leads Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul, which has become the epicenter of the latest outbreak in South Korea, with more than 300 cases reported among its members and contacts in the past six days.

Even before his church grabbed headlines with the outbreak, Mr. Jun has been known widely in South Korea for organizing large anti-government rallies against Mr. Moon. During these rallies, the conservative pastor called for Mr. Moon’s ouster, calling the liberal president a “North Korean spy” and accusing him of trying to “communize” South Korea.

Mr. Jun’s infection was confirmed on Monday by Lee Seung-ro, mayor of Seongbuk-gu, a district of Seoul, where Mr. Jun’s church is located. Mr. Jun was hospitalized on Monday after he tested positive, Mr. Lee said in a Facebook post.

Mr. Jun and some of his church followers attended a large anti-government rally in downtown Seoul on Saturday, ignoring government orders to isolate themselves at home amid a surge in infections among their congregation, officials said. Mr. Moon called their behavior “an unpardonable act against the safety of the people.”

Mass infections in Mr. Jun’s church and another church in Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds the capital city, have helped push the daily caseload in South Korea to three-digit figures in the past four days. South Korea reported 197 new cases on Monday.

“What we see now is believed to be an early stage of what could become a big wave of infections,” said Jung Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Monday. “If we fail to control the spread now, the number of cases could explode exponentially.”

Health officials said on Monday that they have so far counted 319 patients linked to Mr. Jun’s Sarang Jeil Church. The outbreak is the second largest cluster reported in South Korea, following the mass infections in the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the central city of Daegu in February and March claimed 5,200 patients.

 

Source: The New York Times

 

 

 

Japan PM has hospital check-up amid concerns over possible fatigue

By: Yoshifumi Takemoto, Kiyoshi Takenaka

 

•  

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe underwent a medical check-up in hospital on Monday, a government source said, amid concern voiced by a top official that the premier could be suffering fatigue from handling the coronavirus pandemic.

Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, returned home after about seven-and-a-half hours in hospital, Kyodo news agency said.

The agency quoted a source at Abe’s office as saying “Abe underwent various check-ups since he had the whole day (free) on a weekday”, stressing that nothing was wrong with the prime minister.

Health Minister Katsunobu Kato, a close aide, said he understood it was a regular check-up and he was “not at all” worried about Abe’s health.

“All I know is from media reports. And I understand it was reported as a regular check-up,” Kato told reporters.

Abe gets a regular check-up twice a year, with his most recent on June 13, Kyodo said, adding that Monday’s visit was a follow-up to the June check-up, citing a hospital source.

The hospital visit follows weekend comments by Akira Amari, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s tax panel, that Abe, 65, could be suffering from fatigue because of his continuous work over the response to the virus.

“I want him to take a break,” Amari told a Fuji TV news programme on Sunday. “He has a strong sense of responsibility and feels it’s wrong to take a break.”

Abe, in office since 2012 in his second stint as prime minister, resigned from his first term in 2007 because of struggles with ulcerative colitis, which he now keeps under control with medication that was not previously available.

Japanese media have speculated about Abe’s health this month, including detailed reports on Abe’s walking speed. Weekly magazine Flash said Abe had vomited blood at his office on July 6. Reuters was unable to verify the report.

“I see the prime minister every day, and I think he has no (health) problems at all, as he has been carrying out his duties smoothly,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told an Aug. 5 news conference in response to questions following the report.

Abe has discharged regular duties in recent weeks and was last seen in public on Saturday, at a Tokyo ceremony commemorating Japan’s World War Two defeat.

He had his check-up at Tokyo’s Keio University Hospital, the source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

There are no reports that Abe is unable to perform his duties, but should that ever become the case, Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, who doubles as finance minister, would take over.

 

 

Britain encourages at-risk groups to sign up for COVID-19 vaccine trials

by Alistair Smout; Editing by Christina Fincher and Jon Boyle

 

FILE PHOTO: A worker takes a blood sample from a man during a clinical trial of tests for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) antibodies, at Keele University, in Keele, Britain June 30, 2020. REUTERS/Carl Recine

 

Britain on Monday urged elderly people and volunteers from Black and Asian minority groups to sign up to a COVID-19 vaccine trial registry to boost efforts to find a working vaccine against the disease that offers protection for higher risk groups.

No COVID-19 vaccine candidate has yet been proven effective against the disease, but around 20 are in clinical trials.

Over 100,000 people have volunteered to take part in vaccine trials, Britain’s business ministry said, but more volunteers are needed to make sure candidate shots work for everyone.

“Protecting those at risk is the only way we will end this pandemic,” said Kate Bingham, chair of the UK Vaccines Taskforce.

“Getting 100,000 volunteers on board is a great start but we need many more people from many different backgrounds that we can call on for future studies if we are to find a vaccine quickly to protect those who need it.”

The government said it was particularly keen for over 65s, frontline health and care workers and people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to sign up.

A study last week showed that minority ethnic groups were two to three times more likely to have had COVID-19 compared to white people in England. Disproportionate numbers of people from minority groups have also died from the disease.

 

Source: Reuters