Coronavirus: Virus not less potent, WHO says after Italian doctor claim

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro defiantly rallied with his supporters Sunday as the country's coronavirus death toll surged to world's fourth highest, and global fatalities hit 370,000. More than one million cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean, around half of them in Brazil, according to an AFP tally, as the region emerged as a worsening hotspot. At the Vatican, Pope Francis prayed for the Amazon's "particularly vulnerable" indigenous people on Sunday in his first address to the faithful on Saint Peter's square in nearly three months.

Britain partially reopens schools on Monday and allows the most vulnerable to venture outdoors despite warnings that the world's second worst-hit country is moving too quickly out of its coronavirus lockdown. A death toll that now officially stands at 38,489 has piled political pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson. National Education Union co-leader Mary Bousted said the government has had to revise its school reopening guidance 41 times since mid-May. There were "things they had forgotten, things they didn't know, and things they got wrong (and that) had to be added in", Bousted told Sky News.

The reported death toll rose by 11 to 8,511, the tally showed

The US has sent to Brazil more than 2 million doses of a malaria drug touted by President Donald Trump as potentially protecting against and treating the coronavirus, even though scientific evidence has not backed up those uses.No large, rigorous scientific studies have found the drug, hydroxychloroquine, safe or effective for preventing or treating Covid-19, and some smaller studies have indicated worse outcomes from those taking the drug.Brazil, now Latin America’s hardest-hit country, continues to see a surge in virus cases, and last week Trump announced that the US was restricting travel from the country to prevent travelers from spreading the virus in the US

Mahanagari Express, the first train among 200 special trains, departed on Monday from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus for Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.The ministry of railways (MoR) after consultation with ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) and ministry of home affairs (MHA) had earlier announced that train services shall be further partially restored with effect from June 1. Over 1.45 lakh passengers will travel on 200 trains from Tuesday.

China reported the highest daily increase in coronavirus cases in nearly three weeks with 16 new infections discovered on May 31, as the number of so-called imported cases jumped in southwestern Sichuan province. The National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement on Monday that all the new cases involved travellers from overseas, 11 of which were reported in Sichuan. China reported two confirmed cases on May 29, both of which were imported.

The government insists that there is no community spread of Covid-19 in India, but associations of epidemiologists, public health practitioners and experts in preventive and social medicine have issued a joint statement that “community transmission is already well-established across large sections or sub-populations in the country”. Read full story

On the last day of Lockdown 4.0, as both Central and state governments prepared for a phased unlocking of curbs to get the economy up and running again, India saw its highest ever jump in Covid-19 infections with 8,237 cases being reported during the day. With a total of 1,85,061 cases reported till late on Sunday, India zoomed past Germany (1,83,426 cases) in total coronavirus caseload to climb to the eighth spot among countries worst-hit by the virus. If present trends continue, India will displace France (1.88 lakh cases) to occupy seventh position in the next 24 hours. Read full story

Chandigarh and Delhi top and Bihar ranks lowest on severity of lockdown enforcement, according to a study by Mumbai University’s economics school. Ranking states on an immobility index, the researchers drew upon data from Google’s location-mapping of phones to assess the average number of trips people made from their homes during the period from March 24 to May 16. Read full story

More than 1.45 lakh passengers will board 200 special express and mail trains from Monday when the railways restarts its operations. The state-run transporter said it was monitoring booking of tickets and would soon take a decision on resuming operations of Duronto, Shatabdi and Garib Rath trains. Read full story