India reported its biggest single-day spike of 22,772 coronavirus cases and 442 deaths, according to the country’s Ministry of Health.
The coronavirus positive cases now stand at 648,315, while 18,655 people have died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Iran imposes new curbs as coronavirus toll rises
Iranians who do not wear masks will be denied state services and workplaces that fail to comply with health protocols will be shut for a week, President Hassan Rouhani said as he launched new measures to try to curb the coronavirus.
Iran has been battling the spread of the coronavirus, with the total number of cases hitting 237,878 on Saturday and a further 148 deaths bringing the country’s toll to 11,408, Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on state television.
Tokyo seeks travel curbs
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike on Saturday urged residents of the Japanese capital not to travel beyond its borders as new coronavirus infections topped 100 for a third day, public broadcaster NHK reported.
Tokyo confirmed 131 new cases of infections of the coronavirus, NHK said.
Cases in Tokyo have risen to a two-month high, driven by the spread of the virus in the capital’s nightspots. Of Saturday’s tally, 100 were in their 20s and 30s, Kyodo news agency said, citing Koike.
UK pubs, restaurants and hairdressers reopen
People were finally allowed to drink in a pub, have a meal in a restaurant or get a haircut for the first time in more than three months as England took its biggest steps yet towards the resumption of normal life.
Pubs were permitted to start serving from 6am, sparking worries of over-indulgence on what the media dubbed a “Super Saturday” of coronavirus restrictions being eased. Some hairdressers were reported to have opened at the stroke of midnight.
Louvre Museum to reopen on Monday
The Louvre in Paris, the world’s most visited museum and home to the Mona Lisa, reopens on Monday but with coronavirus restrictions in place and parts of the complex closed to visitors.
The Louvre has been closed since March 13 and this has already led “to losses of over 40 million euros”, its director Jean-Luc Martinez said.
Among more than 10 million visitors in 2018, almost three quarters were tourists.
Russia’s coronavirus cases near 675,000, death toll passes 10,000
Russia reported 6,632 new cases of the novel coronavirus, raising the nationwide tally of infections to 674,515.
The authorities said that 168 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 10,027.
South Africa reports record daily infections
South Africa has announced another record daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases with 9,064, as Africa’s most developed country shows signs of strain in coping with the pandemic.
Thirty percent of South Africa’s more than 177,000 cases are now in Gauteng province, which contains Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Sixty-three new cases in large cities in South Korea
South Korea reported 63 new cases of the coronavirus, continuing a weeks-long resurgence as new clusters pop up in various parts of the country.
The figures announced by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday brought national totals to 13,030 infections, including 283 deaths.
Twenty-eight of the new cases were reported from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, where about half of South Korea’s 51 million people live. Infections were also reported in large cities such as Busan, Daegu, Daejeon and Gwangju, where hundreds of schools have been shut and social restrictions elevated.
Brazil surpasses 1.5 million coronavirus cases
Brazil reported 42,223 additional coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said, bringing the total tally to 1,539,081.
The number of coronavirus deaths rose by 1,290 to 63,174, according to the ministry.
SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies
