Health

BELGRADE, June 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Serbian Defence Minister, Aleksandar Vulin, tested positive for COVID-19, the Defence Ministry said Saturday, in a press statement.

Vulin underwent a regular test, after having contact with one of the state secretaries in the Ministry of Defence, who was recently hospitalised due to COVID-19 infection, said the statement.

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 28 (NNN-CMA) – Brazil, on Saturday, reported at least 1,109 daily deaths of COVID-19, raising its death toll to 57,070.

In the last 24 hours, 38,693 new cases were reported, bringing the national count to 1,313,667, the Brazilian Health Ministry said, in its daily report.

The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in the country, has been the most heavily affected by the disease, with 14,263 deaths and 265,581 cases, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 9,789 deaths and 108,803 cases.

Chennai, June 27 (PTI) As the COVID-19 wave sweeps strongly across the country, including in Tamil Nadu, mental health experts say the pandemic has triggered panic attacks among those who tested positive for the virus, causing bouts of depression and even driving some to the brink of suicide.

BRUSSELS/CHICAGO (Reuters) - European Union countries failed to settle on Friday on a final “safe list” of countries whose residents could travel to the bloc from July, with the United States, Brazil and Russia set to be excluded.

Ambassadors from the 27 EU members convened from Friday afternoon to establish criteria for granting quarantine-free access from next Wednesday.

New Delhi, Jun 27 (PTI) Six days after it recorded four lakh infections, India's COVID-19 tally raced past five lakh on Saturday with the highest single-day surge of 18,552 cases, while the death toll climbed to 15,685, according to Union health ministry data.

The COVID-19 caseload zoomed to 5,08,953, while?384 fatalities were recorded in the last 24 hours, the updated figure at 8 am showed.

BUENOS AIRES, June 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Argentina President Alberto Fernandez announced on Friday a toughening of lockdown measures in the capital Buenos Aires and its surrounding area as coronavirus cases are on the rise.

“We’re going back to closing the Buenos Aires metropolitan area so that traffic dramatically decreases, to reduce infections and the need for (hospital) beds,” said Fernandez.

From July 1 “we’re going to ask everyone to return to isolation at home and to only leave to fetch provisions for daily life,” he said.

WASHINGTON, June 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The IMF board on Friday approved a one-year, $5.2 billion financing package for Egypt to help the country alleviate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new funding under a standby arrangement comes on top of $2.8 billion in emergency aid the IMF board approved a month ago, although at the time officials acknowledged that more help would be needed.

STOCKHOLM, June 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) —Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has rejected a warning from the World Health Organization that included Sweden among countries in Europe at risk of a Covid-19 resurgence.

The WHO on Thursday said several countries and territories were seeing a rise in infections. Eleven were in the UN agency’s Europe region.

Dr Tegnell told Swedish TV it was a “total misinterpretation of the data”.

LONDON, June 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain will ditch a 14-day quarantine period for people arriving from countries it deems to be lower risk for COVID-19 , the government said.

Official travel advice against all but essential travel outside Britain will also be eased for some countries and regions.

Taken together, these changes will make it easier for Britons to travel abroad for summer holidays.

WASHINGTON (AP) — There was no presidential appearance and no White House backdrop when the government’s coronavirus task force briefed the public for the first time since April — in keeping with an administration effort to show it is paying attention to the latest spike in cases but is not on a wartime footing that should keep the country from reopening the economy.