The total number of COVID-19 cases worldwide has now crossed 5.5 million, while more than 350,000 people have died from the virus.
Here are the top 10 global developments:
1. With 98,875 coronavirus deaths, the US is nearing the grim milestone of 100,000 lives lost as a result of the pandemic
2. More than 350,000 people have now lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
3. New Zealand reported no new cases for a fifth consecutive day. There is only about 1,500 reported case in total. The nation discharged its last virus patient from the hospital last night, meaning it had no virus patients inwards for the first time in months.
4. Germany has extended social distancing rules aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus epidemic to 29 June, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government said on Tuesday.
5. Spain will begin a 10-day period of national mourning today, in memory of the almost 30,000 people in the country who have died
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6. South Korea recorded 40 new cases of the virus on Wednesday, which is its highest case-spike in 49 days. It comes as millions of students returned to the classroom in the country.
7. France President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday announced US $8.8 billion plan to revive France’s auto industry by making it the European leader in electric cars, boosting a sector brought to its knees by the coronavirus.
8. India’s top biomedical research body on Tuesday backed the use of the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine as a preventive against coronavirus, after the WHO suspended clinical trials of the drug over safety concerns.
9. The UK death toll passed 47,000, according to new figures from the country’s Office for National Statistics.
10. Russia has announced that 174 people with coronavirus have died in the past 24 hours, a record one-day amount that has pushed the nationwide death toll to 3,807.