ISLAMABAD: The novel coronavirus has killed at least 400,472 people since the outbreak first emerged in China last December, according to international media reports.
At least 6,926,560 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 3,389,218 are now considered recovered.
The United States is the worst-hit country with 111,858 deaths from 1,980,879 cases. After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Britain with 40,465 deaths from 284,868 cases, Brazil with 35,211 deaths and 651,980 infections, Italy with 33,846 deaths from 234,801 cases, and France with 29,142 deaths and 153,634 cases.
China -- excluding Hong Kong and Macau -- has to date declared 4,634 deaths and 83,030 infections. It has 78,329 recovered cases.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has threatened to pull out of the WHO over "ideological bias," as his counterpart Donald Trump said the US economy was recovering from the coronavirus pandemic while Europe slowly reopens its borders.
From Africa to Europe to Asia, governments are focused on reviving economies ravaged by weeks of restrictions to contain the virus.
European countries that are among the hardest hit are steadily reopening with the infection rates slowing even as Latin America is battered by the epidemic, especially Brazil which now has the world´s third-highest number of virus deaths.
Fuelling the debate raging around the pandemic, its origins and the best way to respond, Bolsonaro criticised the WHO for suspending clinical trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 -- a decision it reversed this week -- and threatened to follow in Trump´s footsteps by quitting.
"I´m telling you right now, the United States left the WHO, and we´re studying that, in the future. Either the WHO works without ideological bias, or we leave, too," the far-right leader told journalists.
Dubbed the "Tropical Trump," Bolsonaro has followed the US president in his handling of the pandemic, downplaying its severity, attacking stay-at-home measures and touting the purported effects of hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19.
The WHO had suspended trials of hydroxychloroquine after major studies raised concerns about its safety and effectiveness -- irking Trump, who even took the drug himself as a preventive measure.
Most of the authors of the studies that appeared in The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine retracted their work, saying they could no longer vouch for their data because the firm that supplied it refused to be audited.
But a new study from Oxford University said Friday that hydroxychloroquine showed "no beneficial effect" in treating COVID-19.
In the US -- the hardest-hit country, Trump also said the economy was bouncing back.
"We had the greatest economy in the history of the world. And that strength let us get through this horrible pandemic, largely through, I think we´re doing really well," he told reporters.
Trump, who is facing re-election in November, reiterated his calls to further ease stay-at-home measures, after surprisingly upbeat employment numbers showed the country gained 2.5 million jobs in May.
In a sign of the slow return to normal in the US, Universal Orlando became the first of the giant theme parks in sunny Florida to reopen -- albeit with temperature controls at the entrance and mandatory face masks.
The South Pacific island of French Polynesia also said it will reopen to international travel next month to try to salvage its vital tourism industry.
In Europe, badly-hit countries slowly continued on a path toward a post-pandemic normal, also seeking to revive key tourist sectors in time for the summer season.
The EU said it could reopen borders to travellers from outside the region in early July, after some countries within the bloc reopened to European visitors.
A major Spanish tourism draw, Madrid´s Prado museum, reopened its doors to a handful of visitors Saturday, putting together more than 200 masterpieces in a new exhibition.
In France, the Palace of Versailles also reopened, but without the American and Chinese tourists that usually make up a third of its visitors.
A top French expert said Friday that dramatic drops in daily deaths and new cases in the country since their March peaks meant the worst was over.
Afghanistan is running out of hospital beds as suspected cases of coronavirus surge, officials said on Saturday, warning "there is a disaster coming" in the impoverished country.
Afghan health authorities reported 761 new positive cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed infections to 19,551.
"Our (hospital) beds are almost full, we won´t have any more capacity very soon," Health Minister Ahmad Jawad Osmani told reporters.
Officials said the number of cases were more than expected, including in the capital Kabul, the epicentre of the disease.
"There is a disaster coming," said Kabul governor Mohammad Yakub Haidary at a joint press conference with the health minister.
He said in Kabul alone there could be a million people infected with the deadly virus.
So far there have been 327 confirmed deaths in the country.
"We have reports of increasing suspected deaths, people burying dead bodies at night," Haidary said.
"We fill 10-15 ambulances of dead people every day."
India reported a record 10,346 new coronavirus cases in one day on Saturday and overtook Italy as the world’s sixth-biggest outbreak, two days before the relaxing of a lockdown with the reopening of malls, restaurants and places of worship.
With its total number of cases rising to more than 246,000, India now has fewer infections than only the United States, Brazil, Russia, Britain and Spain.
However, India’s toll of deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, is 6,946, small compared with those other countries.
Traditional funeral pyres have been drafted in to burn the bodies of coronavirus victims in the Indian capital as crematorium furnaces struggle to keep up with the mounting death toll.
Smoke from the open-air blazes stings the eyes of waiting mourners and workers at Nigambodh Ghat, New Delhi´s biggest and oldest crematorium. The rising number of bodies arriving from hospitals has forced the facility, situated next to the city´s historic Red Fort, to extend its opening hours. Funerals start at 8.00am and go on late into the night.
The committee that runs Nigambodh Ghat says the crematorium has handled more than 500 coronavirus funerals in two months. Three other crematoria and at least two cemeteries also handle Delhi´s virus dead.
Authorities have ordered victims be incinerated in modern furnaces as a precaution against infection as anxiety grows over the spread of the disease.
Meanwhile, Iran President Hassan Rouhani warned Iranians Saturday to prepare to live with the novel coronavirus "for a long time", as the country gradually rolls back restrictions imposed to curb the outbreak.
People should not assume that "this disease will be eliminated in 15 days or a month: we must therefore follow the instructions for a long time," Rouhani said during the weekly meeting of the coronavirus taskforce broadcast on state TV.
"We must end all gatherings, be it marriage, mourning, or family visits, until told otherwise by the health minister," he added.
Iran has been battling the Middle East´s deadliest outbreak of the novel coronavirus since reporting its first cases in February.
Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the country´s total number of cases had risen to 169,425 with 2,269 new infections confirmed in the past 24 hours.
He added that 75 people who were infected died in the same period, bringing the overall fatalities to 8,209.
Meanwhile, the WHO changed its advice on face masks amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying they should be worn in places where the virus is widespread and physical distancing is difficult.
The use of masks has been a hot topic ever since the pandemic first emerged in China in December.
"In light of evolving evidence, WHO advises that governments should encourage the general public to wear masks where there is widespread transmission and physical distancing is difficult," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
In areas with community-level virus transmission, "we advise that people aged 60 years or over, or those with underlying conditions, should wear a medical mask in situations where physical distancing is not possible", he added.
But the UN health agency stressed that facemasks alone "will not protect you from COVID-19" -- and people suffering with the virus should not be out in public if they can avoid it.
The WHO maintained its recommendation that people who are sick with COVID-19 symptoms should stay at home and if it is absolutely necessary for them or their contacts to leave home, they should wear a medical mask.
