Worldwide coronavirus cases cross 13.14 million, death toll over 571,500

At least 13,142,079 people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 571,854 have died, a Reuters tally showed.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

The World Health Organization referred to the outbreak as a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

At least 3,382,052 cases of the highly contagious novel coronavirus have been reported in the United States and its territories while at least 135,490 people have died, according to a Reuters tally of state and local government sources as of July 14, 2020, 08:25 AM. The US diagnosed its first COVID-19 case in Washington state on January 20.

Likewise, Brazil follows the US with a total of 1,884,967 coronavirus cases with 72,833 death, according to Reuters’ interactive graphic tracking the global spread.

Likewise, India has the third-highest 878,254 coronavirus cases while 23,174 people have died.

Meanwhile, Australian states tightened borders and restricted pub visits on Tuesday, while Disney prepared to close its Hong Kong theme park and Japan stepped up tracing as a jump in novel coronavirus cases across Asia fanned fears of a second wave of infections.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

— Bahrain will add $470 million in emergency spending to its 2020 state budget.

— A Lebanese waste management company is quarantining some 133 Syrian workers who tested positive, as Lebanon recorded a new daily high for infections.

EUROPE

— Britain faces a potentially more deadly second wave of COVID-19 in the coming winter that could kill up to 120,000 people over nine months in a worst-case scenario, health experts said.

— Spain's Catalonia approved a decree giving it legal backing to place restrictions on the city of Lleida and its surroundings, defying a judge's earlier ruling that such an order was unlawful.

AMERICAS

— California's governor clamped new restrictions on businesses as cases and hospitalizations soared, and the state's two largest school districts, in Los Angeles and San Diego, said children would be made to stay home in August.

— Canada and the United States are set to extend a ban on non-essential travel, although a final decision has not been taken, two sources familiar with the matter said.

— The number of deaths from the coronavirus in Latin America has exceeded the figure for North America for the first time since the start of the pandemic, a Reuters count showed.

— More than 880 employees of private contractors running US immigration detention centres have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to a Congressional testimony given by company executives.

ASIA-PACIFIC

— Hong Kong will impose strict new social distancing measures from midnight Tuesday, the most stringent in the Asian financial hub since the coronavirus broke out.

— Kazakhstan will extend its second lockdown by two weeks until the end of July, and will once again offer financial aid to those who have lost their source of income.

— The Philippines reported Southeast Asia's biggest daily jump in COVID-19 deaths and warned of more fatalities ahead.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

— Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech SE said two of their experimental coronavirus vaccines received "fast track" designation from the US health agency.

— Drugmakers partnered with the US government are on track to begin actively manufacturing a vaccine for COVID-19 by the end of the summer, a senior administration official said.

— Quest Diagnostics Inc said the turnaround for COVID-19 tests it is conducting in the US has lengthened, with non-prioritised patients waiting a week or more on average for their results.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

— Singapore's economy suffered a record contraction in the second quarter, tipping it into recession and putting the trade-reliant city-state on course for its worst ever slump this year.

— Private investment firms that manage the fortunes of wealthy individuals and their kin were approved for millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded relief loans designed to help small businesses weather the coronavirus lockdown, according to a review of recently released government data.

— China's exports unexpectedly rose in June as overseas economies reopened after lockdowns, while imports grew for the first time this year.