Health

Argentina confirmed more than 1,000 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday as the rate of new infections continued to rise just days after it extended lockdown measures in the capital Buenos Aires, the country's largest city and epicenter for the virus.

Population-wide facemask use could push COVID-19 transmission down to controllable levels for national epidemics and could prevent further waves of the pandemic disease when combined with lockdowns, according to a UK study published Wednesday.

Nearly half of all Californians live in areas where coronavirus infections and hospitalizations are rising quickly enough to put their counties on a watch list for potential reinstatement of shutdowns, a Reuters analysis of state data show.

New coronavirus cases in Mexico are expected to keep rising, a top health official said on Tuesday, even as the government pushes a gradual reopening of the economy launched at the beginning of this month.

Mexico's health ministry reported 4,199 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 596 additional fatalities on Tuesday, bringing the total in the country to 124,301 cases and 14,649 deaths.

Mainland China reported three confirmed and five new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases by the end of June 9, the National Health Commission said on Wednesday.

Brazil reported 32,091 new cases of coronavirus and 1,272 new deaths for the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

U.S. authorities on Tuesday said they have charged the head of California medical technology firm Arrayit Corp and an investor in the company, alleging that they had roles in schemes related to COVID-19 claims.

The leaders of six European Union nations have called for building up EU stocks of critical medicines and equipment and other measures to boost the bloc's long-term resilience to public health crises.

France's coronavirus death toll rose by 87 or 0.3% to 29,296 on Tuesday, the highest daily toll since June 2, but remained under 100 for the seventh day in a row, health ministry data showed.

Beijing dismissed as "ridiculous" a Harvard Medical School study of hospital traffic and search engine data that suggested the new coronavirus may already have been spreading in China last August, and scientists said it offered no convincing evidence of when the outbreak began.

Brazil's most populous state São Paulo registered on Tuesday a record in daily coronavirus deaths, as COVID-19 continues to ravage the country.

Germany plans to extend a travel ban for non-European countries until Aug. 31, government sources told Reuters on Tuesday, adding Berlin was also strongly advising against any cruises due to the special risks related to coronavirus.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Tuesday it would distribute about $25 billion to hospitals that have not previously received relief funds as they grapple with a rise in COVID-19 cases.

The World Health Organization's regional director for the Americas Carissa Etienne said on Tuesday that data has raised concerns that novel coronavirus cases are surging in new places in Latin America as some areas show "exponential" rises.

Glass maker Corning Inc said on Tuesday it would receive $204 million from the U.S. government to boost the manufacturing capacity of its vials that will be used to store coronavirus vaccines and treatments.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday that he will consider pulling the country out of the World Health Organization once the coronavirus pandemic has passed.

AstraZeneca on Tuesday received $23.7 million in funding from a U.S. government agency to advance the development of antibody-based COVID-19 treatments as the British drugmaker ramps up efforts beyond its potential vaccine to combat the pandemic.

New coronavirus cases in Mexico will keep rising for weeks to come, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said on Tuesday, after the number of confirmed cases exceeded several expected peaks for the country in recent weeks.

Glass maker Corning Inc said on Tuesday it would receive $204 million from the U.S. government to boost manufacturing capacity of its vials that will be used to package coronavirus vaccines and treatments.