Health

AstraZeneca Plc has signed a contract with European governments to supply the region with its potential vaccine against the coronavirus, the British drugmaker's latest deal to pledge its drug to help combat the pandemic.

India's federal government said on Sunday it will provide New Delhi's city authorities with 500 railway coaches that will be equipped to care for coronavirus patients, after a surge in the number of cases led to a shortage of hospital beds.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain's two-metre social distancing rule was under review ahead of a potential further easing of lockdown measures on July 4, adding his room for manoeuvre was increasing as the incidence of COVID-19 falls.

President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Russia was emerging from the novel coronavirus epidemic with minimal losses, having handled it better than the United States where he said party political interests got in the way.

Beijing on Sunday reported a record 36 new cases of COVID-19 in China's capital, all linked to a major food wholesale market, raising concerns about the spike in a country that had sharply reduced its infections.

Beijing city confirmed eight new coronavirus cases in the first seven hours of June 14, a city official said on Sunday.

Britain is urgently reviewing its social distancing rule and might be able to relax quarantine for travellers to help its economy recover from a coronavirus crisis collapse, the country's finance minister Rishi Sunak said.

Britain's government is looking at options for its two-week quarantine for people entering the country and might be able to make changes to the rules, finance minister Rishi Sunak said on Sunday.

Russia reported 8,835 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the number of infections nationwide to 528,964.

Malaysia reported eight new novel coronavirus cases on Sunday, taking the total to 8,453 infections.

Indonesia reported 857 new coronavirus infections and 43 more deaths on Sunday, taking the total number of cases to 38,277 and fatalities to 2,134, health ministry official Achmad Yurianto said.

The Philippines reported 539 more coronavirus infections on Sunday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 25,930.

Tokyo confirmed 47 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, Asahi television reported, the highest since the government lifted the state of emergency nationwide in late May.

Australia's two largest states will further ease public coronavirus restrictions at libraries, community centres and nightclubs, officials said on Sunday, despite recording increases in new infections.

Beijing should expand the scope of nucleic acid testing for the new coronavirus in and the scope of sampling in the Chinese capital, a city government spokesman said on Sunday.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 247 to 186,269, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday.

China reported 57 new confirmed COVID-19 cases for June 13, the highest since April 13, according to data released by the national health authority on Sunday.

The Chinese capital of Beijing reported on Sunday 36 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus on June 13, setting an all-time high for new daily infections in the city.

Mexico's health ministry reported 3,494 new confirmed coronavirus infections along with 424 additional fatalities on Saturday, bringing the total in the country to 142,690 cases and 16,872 deaths.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule on Friday that would lift anti-discrimination protections under Obamacare for transgender people and women seeking abortions, drawing condemnation from Democratic lawmakers.