UK secures early access to 90M vaccine doses

A health worker takes a swab test for the coronavirus of a woman in Mumbai, India, on Saturday, July 18. Rafiq Maqbool/AP

India has recorded 40,425 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the highest daily increase since the outbreak began, the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced today.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India has now reached 1,118,043, the third-highest in the world, according to the Indian government.

India reported 681 new deaths today, raising the country's death toll to 27,497.

Delhi said it has so far tested more than 14 million people countrywide for coronavirus, in an attempt to get a handle on the country's expanding epidemic.

AstraZeneca's building in Luton, England on May 18. Tim Ireland/Xinhua/Getty Images

The British government has secured early access to more than 90 million vaccine doses as well as Covid-19 neutralizing antibody treatments, Business Secretary Alok Sharma announced today.

The announcement follows an existing global licensing agreement signed with AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford to research, develop and manufacture 100 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine for the UK public.

France-based Pharmaceutical Valneva confirmed the “agreement in principle” with the British government saying it would “provide up to 100 million doses of its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate.”

Sharma encouraged people to sign up for a newly created NHS website which aims to make it “quicker and easier” for volunteers to join studies and trials. 

According to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases in the United States, there were 61,487 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported on Sunday.

To date, there are at least 3,773,260 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US.

There were 415 new fatalities recorded on Sunday, bringing the US death toll to at least 140,534.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other U.S. territories, as well as repatriated cases. 

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2nd R), President of the European Council Charles Michel (R) and Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen (L) and Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio Costa (L) attend EU summit to discuss EU's long-term budget and coronavirus recovery plan in Brussels, Belgium on July 18. Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

After three days of marathon talks, European leaders have been unable to reach an agreement on a landmark initiative to fund Europe’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis. Leaders will reconvene in Brussels on Monday afternoon.

After all-night discussions, talks stalled early Monday after leaders couldn’t find a way to break through on long list of disagreements including the size of loans and grants required for the EU’s economic recovery plan.

European Council President Charles Michel had proposed that countries would be able to access a recovery package of more than $857 billion (€750 billion) from which $571 billion (€500 billion) would be paid as grants.

Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, the so-called "Frugal Four," had vehemently opposed the idea of €500 billion in grants over concerns of loading their countries with national debt to fund the spending of other countries.

Countries like Spain and Italy said they couldn’t accept a reduction in the volume of grants.

“For us, we don't believe in this grants-based system,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, speaking to journalists on Friday. The Netherlands had proposed linking access to grants to an increased governance mechanism to ensure that countries met the requirements for receiving money.

President Donald Trump just offered a telling glimpse into his priorities as the coronavirus lengthens its trail of death and sickness.

Not bothering to hide his indifference and contempt for science, the President made clear on Sunday that it's more important to him to be ultimately proven right about the pandemic than to reconsider his disastrous approach that is doing little to stop its deadly spread.

Until then, America must endure crammed ICUs in virus-ravaged states, thousands more deaths and the prospect of cities slumping back into economically crippling lockdowns that crush hopes of a return to work and school with normal life as only a memory.

Trump's passive leadership becomes more neglectful the worse the crisis gets -- with more than 140,000 Americans now dead.

Read more here:

Workers from the Crematorio San Isidro prepare a person for cremation who died from the coronavirus on July 17, in Mexico City, Mexico. Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Mexico's coronavirus epidemic is continuing to grow, with the country's death toll now nearing 40,000 people.

The Health Ministry reported 296 people died of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours on Sunday. To date, a total of 39,184 people have died of the coronavirus since the pandemic began. 

Mexican authorities also announced 5,311 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the country’s total number of infections to 344,224.

Medical workers conduct testing for the coronavirus (COVID-19) at a drive-thru testing site in Melbourne, Australia on July 10, 2020. Recep Sakar/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The Australian state of Victoria has reported 275 new coronavirus cases in the past day, most of which are still under investigation, State Premier Daniel Andrews announced at a press conference today.

Of the 275 new cases, 28 were linked to known outbreaks, while 247 are still being looked into by Victorian authorities.

Andrews also announced that a woman in her 80s had died due to Covid-19, bringing Victoria's death toll to 35.

The number of coronavirus-related patients in hospitals in Victoria has risen to 147 with 31 in ICU, Andrews said.

On July 8, Metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, a regional area of Victoria, returned to a Stage Three lockdown for six weeks amid a rise in cases. 

People are only allowed to leave their homes to buy food, go to work, receive or give care and exercise, according to the Victoria government.

Workers disinfect inside of Osaka City Juso Hospital ahead of reopening of outpatient care in Osaka, Japan, on July 9. The Yomiuri Shimbun/AP

Osaka, the second largest prefecture in Japan, announced its highest daily total of new coronavirus cases yet, half of which it said were still untraceable.

Japan recorded 510 coronavirus cases on Sunday, the Health Ministry said in a statement released today. Osaka confirmed 89 infections on Sunday, including 59 untraceable cases.

This is the highest daily figure reported in the prefecture since April 9.

Another 188 cases were reported in Tokyo on Sunday, the first time in four days that the number fell below 200, the statement read.

No new deaths were reported on Sunday.

The total number of confirmed cases across Japan is now 25,808, which includes 25,096 land cases and 712 cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. 

Ls than a quarter of Japanese are looking forward to the Tokyo Olympics next year amid the Covid-19 outbreak, according to a survey published by Kyodo News on Sunday.

The survey showed only 23.9% of Japanese residents supported holding the Summer Games beginning on July 23 next year as scheduled. 

Meanwhile, 36.4% of respondents believed the games should be further postponed, while another 33.7% said the event should be canceled amid the pandemic.

Respondents said the main reasons were because the virus was unlikely to be contained anytime soon, and that the Japanese government should prioritize its fight against Covid-19 in the country.

Organizers have rescheduled the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to start July 23 next year due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Kyodo said the survey sampled 1,041 respondents, who were chosen from randomly selected eligible voters' households and mobile numbers.