India recorded 9,985 cases in one day and 274 deaths, as the country emerged from a two-month lockdown.
Concerns are growing about a second wave of coronavirus in the US, with 22 states reporting weekly increases in coronavirus cases.
China has dismissed as “ridiculous” a Harvard Medical School study that suggested the coronavirus could have been circulating in Wuhan as early as August. Scientists have also said it offers no convincing evidence of when the outbreak began.
Nearly 7.2 million people have now been confirmed to have the coronavirus and nearly 409,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The US, the UK and Brazil have recorded the highest death tolls. The US, Brazil and Russia have the most cases.
Here are the latest updates:
Wednesday, June 10
06:50 GMT – Hairdressers, beauty salons reopen in Malaysia
Malaysia reopened nearly all economic and social activities Wednesday after nearly three months of lockdown successfully brought down virus infections.
Malaysians can now travel for domestic holidays, get their hair cut and visit street markets, while schools and religious activities will gradually resume.
Night clubs, pubs, karaoke, theme parks and reflexology centers will stay shut during the recovery period. Contact sports or those that involve many spectators such as football, and activities involving mass groups, are still banned.
Malaysia has recorded 8,336 infections and 117 deaths [File: Mohd Rasfan/AFP]
06:30 GMT – Applications for asylum in EU plummet during pandemic
Asylum applications in Europe fell to the lowest level in April for over a decade as borders closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, European Union figures show, compounding the challenges of people fleeing conflict and persecution.
The number of asylum applications declined to 8,730 during April, an 86 percent drop from 61,421 in February, according to figures obtained by Reuters from the European Asylum Support Office (EASO).
The EU had shut its external borders in March and many of its 27 member states suspended registration of applications.
06:11 GMT – India surge continues with nearly 10,000 cases
The number of coronavirus cases in India continued to rapidly increase Wednesday, with officials reporting nearly 10,000 new cases over the past 24 hours.
The spike has come as the government moves forward with reopening restaurants, shopping malls and religious places in most of its states after a more than two-month-old lockdown.
The government has already partially restored train services and domestic flights and allowed shops and manufacturing to reopen. Subways, hotels and schools and colleges, however, remain shuttered nationwide.
The Health Ministry on Wednesday reported an 24-hour increase of 9,985 cases and 274 deaths. India has recorded 276,583 positive cases, the fifth highest in the world, and 7,745 deaths.
Hello, this is Usaid Siddiqui in Doha taking over from my colleague Kate Mayberry
06:00 GMT –
I’m now handing over the blog to my colleagues in Doha. A quick update on developments over the past few hours… The US appears to be facing the risk of a second wave of infections, Brazil has restored its coronavirus data after a political storm and a court order, and Mexico and Argentina are seeing daily surges in cases.
05:45 GMT – Gone by July: Upbeat prognosis from Australia
A senior medical official in New South Wales says Australia will have largely eradicated the coronavirus by July when community sports are due to resume.
“Our view has been that we had hoped that by June/July that we would see coronavirus largely disappearing from the country, so this is pretty much on track,” said Bill Rawlinson, a senior medical virologist with New South Wales Health.
Australia’s latest data shows seven new cases – three in NSW and four in the state of Victoria.
04:45 GMT – Global Peace Index report uploaded
The IEP has now uploaded its Global Peace Index report to social media.
The Global Peace Index 2020 is now available for download In the 2020 report: ⭕ Rankings & trends⭕ Regional overviews⭕ Civil unrest⭕ Positive Peace & pandemics⭕ Ecological Threat RegisterDownload now → https://t.co/IRRl4mLJ2i pic.twitter.com/wlZj1AZrwa
— Global Peace Index (@GlobPeaceIndex) June 10, 2020
04:00 GMT – Coronavirus shock to fuel years of poverty, unrest
The Insitute for Economics and Peace (IEP) says the shock of the coronavirus will fuel poverty and unrest for years to come, undoing decades of progress in socio-economic development.
The Australian-based think tank says the countries that will suffer the most will be those that are politically-fragile whose economies are generally less robust.
“The worst is still to come,” said Steve Killelea, the head of the IEP at the launch of its annual Global Peace Index.
IEP says heavily-indebted countries will find it hard to get the money they need to rebuild their economies once lockdowns are relaxed, raising the risk of riots and unrest. Cuts in overseas aid could also hurt countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen and South Sudan.
03:55 GMT – Fujifilm to spend $928m to expand Danish facility for COVID-19 drug
Japan’s Fujifilm is to spend $928 million to expand a facility in Denmark where it plans to produce COVID-19 treatments.
Fujifilm says the investment will help expand production lines for bulk drug substances, as well as viral vaccines.
02:15 GMT – California, Arizona see coronavirus cases spike
Cases of coronavirus are spiking and leading to more hospital admissions in parts of California and Arizona, raising the risk of authorities tightening public health restrictions to curb the virus’ spread.
More than 18 million people in California, including residents of Los Angeles, Santa Clara and Fresno are now on a state watch list of places at risk, according to Reuters.
“Many of the cases that are showing up in hospitals are linked to gatherings that are taking place in homes – birthday parties and funerals,” said Olivia Kasirye, the public health director of Sacramento County.
Reuters reports 22 states across the US recorded weekly increases in coronavirus cases on Tuesday. Arizona, Utah and New Mexico all recorded rises of 40 percent or more over the week, it said.
01:20 GMT – Argentina daily coronavirus cases top 1,000 for first time
Argentina has confirmed more than 1,000 new daily cases of coronavirus for the first time.
Argentina’s Health Ministry on Tuesday said it had logged 1,141 new cases in the past 24 hours, as well 24 deaths, pushing its totals to 24,761 cases and 717 deaths since the outbreak began in early March.
Latin America has become the new epicentre of the global outbreak although Argentina’s case load remains remains significantly lower than neighbours Chile and Brazil.
Argentina last week extended a mandatory lockdown in Buenos Aires, which accounts for the country’s highest concentration of confirmed infections. Other areas have moved to “mandatory and preventive social distancing.”
More than 1,000 COVID-19 infections in Buenos Aires slum
23:50 GMT (Tuesday) – Mexico warns peak could be weeks away
Mexico’s deputy health minister says it could be weeks before the country, which has already started to reopen its economy, sees a peak in coronavirus cases.
“We still haven’t reached the maximum point,” Hugo Lopez-Gatell said at a news conference, saying numbers would continue to rise each day. The country is forecasting up to 35,000 deaths up to October.
The health ministry said 596 people died from COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total to 14,649.
23:30 GMT (Tuesday) – Brazil restores data after court challenge to its removal
Brazil has restored data on its COVID-19 outbreak to its official national website after a Supreme Court judge ordered the government to reinstate cumulative totals and state breakdowns.
The decision to remove the data triggered an outcry and accusations that the government, under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, was trying to mask the extent of the outbreak.
On Tuesday evening, Brazil had a total of 739,503 confirmed cases with 38,406 deaths. It has the second-highest caseload in the world after the US and the third-highest death toll after the United States and the United Kingdom.
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Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.
Read all the updates from yesterday (June 9) here.
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