Morocco returns to partial coronavirus lockdown: Live updates | Coronavirus pandemic News

• • Morocco will stop people from entering and leaving some of its biggest cities, including Casablanca, Marrakech and Tangier from midnight to contain a surge in coronavirus cases. Earlier, the health ministry reported 633 new cases, one of the biggest daily rises so far, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 20,278, with 313 deaths and 16,438 recoveries.

     

 

• • Health authorities in North Macedonia reported that confirmed cases of the coronavirus surged above 10,000, meaning that almost 0.5 percent of the population of 2.1 million have been infected.

 

• • Florida has overtaken New York in the number of coronavirus cases, according to the latest figures from the health department in the southeastern United States state.

 

• • The number of coronavirus infections has hit 16.15 million worldwide, while more than 647,000 people have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 9.32 million patients have recovered.

 

Here are the latest updates:

Monday, July 27

01:05 GMT – Serbia reports record number of daily cases

Serbia has reported a record number of daily cases of the new coronavirus, according to AP news agency.

Health authorities said that 467 people have tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, the highest number since the start of the outbreak. They said eight people have died.

Epidemiologist Darija Kisic Tepavcevic said, however, that there is reason to be optimistic because there have been fewer people in need of hospitalisation.

Serbia has confirmed 23,730 cases of the virus while 534 people have died of COVID-19 in the country of some 7 million people.

Numbers of new infections spiked after the Balkan country fully relaxed lockdown measures in May that critics say was a maneuver to pave the way for a parliamentary vote in June.

00:36 GMT – Mexico reports 5,480 new coronavirus cases, 306 deaths

Mexico’s Health Ministry has reported 5,480 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 306 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 390,516 cases and 43,680 deaths.

The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases, according to Reuters news agency.

00:20 GMT – Spain seeks exemption from UK quarantine order

Spain says it is negotiating with the United Kingdom to exclude the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands from a 14-day quarantine imposed on travellers returning to the UK from Spain, AP news agency reported.

Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said, hours after the British measure took effect, that “our efforts at the moment are focused on ensuring that the British authorities can exclude the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands from their quarantine measures.”

The emergence of clusters of the coronavirus has worried authorities in northeast Catalonia and Aragon but has not appeared in Spain’s two archipelagos, which are highly popular tourist destinations for British and other European visitors.

Gonzalez Laya says that the islands are “highly controlled territories” and that their current epidemiological situation is not worse than that of Britain.

00:01 GMT – Brazil registers 555 coronavirus deaths

Brazil has registered an additional 555 deaths attributable to the novel coronavirus over the last 24 hours and another 24,578 confirmed cases, Reuters news agency reported, quoting the country’s health ministry.

The South American nation has now registered 87,004 deaths and 2,419,091 total confirmed cases.

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Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Ted Regencia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

You can find all the key developments from yesterday, July 26, here.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies