New reported infections bring the country’s tally to 1,009,995, the fourth largest in the world.
- Russia has reported 4,995 new coronavirus cases, bringing its national tally to 1,009,995, as its death toll stands at 17,528.
- The United States has said it will stop paying its dues to the World Health Organization, a day after it said it would not participate in the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX), a global vaccine development and distribution project.
- Steroids have been confirmed to reduce the risk of death in patients suffering from severe cases of COVID-19.
- More than 26 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, and nearly 863,028 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. Some 17.3 million people have recovered.
Here are the latest updates:
Thursday, September 3
9:45 GMT – Philippines confirms 1,987 new coronavirus infections
The Philippines’ health ministry on Thursday recorded 1,987 additional novel coronavirus infections, a new five-week low, and 65 additional deaths.
In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases have increased to 228,403, while confirmed deaths have reached 3,688, of which more than 43 percent were reported in the past 30 days.
09:10 GMT – Myanmar seals off capital amid virus surge
Myanmar has imposed mandatory quarantine and coronavirus tests for visitors to its capital city after the country reported dozens more infections on Wednesday and leader Aung San Suu Kyi warned of a “disaster for the country”.
Anyone entering the capital, Naypyitaw, where the government is based, will be quarantined, tested, and allowed entry only if their result is negative, according to a government order published on Facebook.
People coming from the country’s worst-hit areas will be quarantined in a facility for at least seven days, said the order by the Naypyitaw Council, while others will be allowed to leave earlier if they test negative.
08:55 GMT – S Korea scrambles to add hospital beds amid COVID-19 resurgence
South Korea, scrambling to control a second wave of COVID-19, vowed on Thursday to double its critical-care hospital beds amid a severe shortage, highlighting the strain of the pandemic on even well-equipped countries.
The spike in serious cases, as older people make up an increasing proportion of patients amid a broader resurgence, marks a sharp turn for a country that was seen as successful in crushing one of the worst early outbreaks of the new coronavirus outside China.
Fewer than 10 intensive-care beds were available in the greater Seoul area, a metropolis of 26 million people, as of Tuesday, health authorities said. Officials do not give daily numbers, which can fluctuate widely.
08:30 GMT – Indonesia reports new record in daily virus infections
Indonesia reported 3,622 new coronavirus infections, a record high in daily cases, and 134 new deaths, data from the country’s COVID-19 task force showed.
The number of new daily deaths reported was the highest since July 22. That brought the latest COVID-19 tally in Southeast Asia’s biggest country to 184,268 infections and 7,750 deaths.
07:50 GMT – Russia registers nearly 5,000 new coronavirus cases
Russia reported 4,995 new coronavirus cases, bringing its national tally to 1,009,995, the fourth largest in the world.
Russia’s coronavirus taskforce said 114 people had died over the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 17,528.
07:30 GMT – Czechs report highest daily number of cases
The Czech Republic’s daily number of new coronavirus cases rose to 650, the highest since the pandemic reached the country in March, Health Ministry data showed on Thursday.
With that number, the overall count of cases rose to 25,773 in the country of 10.7 million.
7:00 GMT – Sanofi and GSK launch trial for protein-based vaccine
French drugmaker Sanofi and its British peer GSK have started a clinical trial for a protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Sanofi and GSK said that they had started the “Phase 1/2” trial for their adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine, which they hope to make available across the world. The vaccine candidate uses the same recombinant protein-based technology as one of Sanofi’s seasonal influenza vaccines with GSK’s established pandemic adjuvant technology.
The companies said they expected the first results on the vaccine by early December 2020, and if the data turned out to be positive, they would plan to request regulatory approval for the product in the first half of 2021.
6:30 GMT – Russia resumes international flights with Egypt, UAE and Maldives
Russia has resumed international flights with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the Maldives, a government order published showed.
The government said it had authorised three flights a week to Cairo, as well as two flights a week to Dubai and to the Maldives’s Velana International Airport.
5:45 GMT – China offers virus vaccine candidates to aviation industry workers: report
China has offered experimental coronavirus vaccines to aviation industry workers, according to a regulatory notice seen by the Reuters news agency, in a push to inoculate high-risk groups to prevent a possible resurgence as economies reopen.
China, which has four COVID-19 vaccines in the final stage of human trials, launched the emergency use vaccine programme in July, hoping to boost the immunity of groups such as border inspectors or medical industry workers.
Frontline workers at Chinese airlines, airports, China National Aviation Fuel Group and TravelSky Technology Limited will be provided a candidate vaccine on a voluntary basis, the notice from China’s aviation regulator shows. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has asked these sectors and firms to compile a list of personal information of employees willing to take the vaccine, the notice adds.
Hello, this is Usaid Siddiqui in Doha taking over from my colleague Kate Mayberry.
05:05 GMT – UNHCR: Pandemic threatens progress in refugee schooling
The UN Refugee Agency says the coronavirus threatens progress made in improving education for child refugees.
A just-published report based on data from 12 countries hosting more than half the world’s refugee children, found that primary education enrolment increased by two percent in 2019.
But while gross enrolment was 77 percent at the primary level, it fell to only 31 percent in secondary, and just three percent in higher education.
The UNHCR noted girls had less access to education than boys, and that the coronavirus threatened to undo the gains that had been made.
“Before the pandemic, a refugee child was twice as likely to be out of school as a non-refugee child,” the agency said in a statement. This is set to worsen – many may not have opportunities to resume their studies due to school closures, difficulties affording fees, uniforms or books, lack of access to technologies or because they are being required to work to support their families.”
04:45 GMT – India reports record daily jump in cases
India has reported a record jump in cases of coronavirus.
The health ministry confirmed 83,883 cases on Thursday, bringing the total to 3.85 million.
India – the world’s third worst-affected country after the United States and Brazil, has been reporting the world’s highest daily caseload every day for nearly a month.
A further 1,043 people died from the disease, the health ministry said, bringing the death toll to 67,376.
03:20 GMT – First direct international flight lands in Beijing
An Air China flight from Phnom Penh was the first international flight to land in Beijing after direct flights from eight countries were allowed to resume.
As well as Cambodia, direct flights will be allowed from Greece, Denmark, Thailand, Austria and Canada. Passengers must have tested negative for COVID-19 before they board and complete a 14-day government-run quarantine on arrival.
China reported 11 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, all of them imported.
01:45 GMT – Steroids can help save lives in severe cases of COVID-19
The WHO has released new guidance on the use of corticosteroid drugs after studies found their use could cut death rates among seriously ill patients by 20 percent.
The world health agency advises their use in people only with severe cases of the disease.
Cortocosteroids include the drug dexamethasone, which was found to be an effective treatment in June in findings from the Oxford University-led RECOVERY trial, and triggered the WHO investigation.
The guidance also recommends the use of hydrocortisone for the sickest patients.
23:30 GMT (Wednesday) – US moves to withdraw WHO funding
The Trump administration says it will not pay some $62m it owes the World Health Organization (WHO) in membership fees.
The decision comes a day after the US turned its back on COVAX, a global vaccine development and distribution project the agency is leading.
The US formally made its withdrawal from the WHO in July, but the process takes a year and the US is supposed to continue to pay its dues during that time.
You can read more on the US’s latest move against the WHO here.
23:00 GMT – Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi diagnosed with coronavirus
Silvio Berlusconi, who was Italian prime minister four times, has been diagnosed with coronavirus.
The 83-year-old is in isolation at home in northern Italy.
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Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.
You can read all the updates from yesterday (September 2) here.
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