Nepali police arrested 10 protesters including foreign nationals from Australia, the United States and China as hundreds staged a demonstration in Kathmandu against the government’s handling of the virus crisis.
Demonstrators have defied a nationwide lockdown for several days this week to demand better testing and quarantine facilities for returning migrant workers.
India surpasses 300,000 cases, records biggest single-day jump
India reported another record daily spike in coronavirus infections as the country passed a grim milestone of 300,000 cases.
The health ministry reported 11,458 new cases on Saturday and 386 deaths, driving the toll of fatalities up to 8,884.
India’s total caseload reached 308,993, the fourth highest in the world, including more than 150,000 recoveries.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown in late March. India’s caseload jumped by about 100,000 cases in a week, coinciding with the reopening of shopping centres, houses of worship and restaurants.
Vaccine contract with Astrazeneca
Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands have signed a contract with Astrazeneca to supply European citizens with a vaccine against the coronavirus, Italy’s health minister has said.
The contract is for 400 million doses of the vaccine, which was developed with the University of Oxford and whose experimentation phase is already advanced and expected to end in autumn, Roberto Speranza said in a Facebook post.
He added that a first batch of doses would be made available by the end of this year.
The European Commission received a mandate from EU governments on Friday to negotiate advance purchases of promising coronavirus vaccines, the EU’s top health official said, but it was unclear whether there would be enough money available.
Iran to reimpose restrictions if guidelines not followed
President Hassan Rouhani has said Iran will reimpose restrictions to stem a surge in coronavirus cases if health regulations are not observed.
After gradually relaxing its lockdown since mid-April, Iran has seen a sharp rise of new daily infections in recent weeks.
While compliance with health protocols was as high as 80 percent a month ago, it is now down to 20 percent, Rouhani said in a televised speech.
“If there is no cooperation, we will have to reimpose the restrictions,” Rouhani said, adding that adherence to the health protocols was needed “in order to keep businesses open”.
With 2,410 new cases on Saturday, the total of cases has now reached 184,955. With the death of 71 people in the past 24 hours, total fatalities stand at 8,730, the health ministry said.
Police official Sushil Kumar Yadav told AFP news agency that seven of those arrested were foreigners. Three were Chinese, with one each from the United States, Australia, Canada and Norway, he said.
