Coronavirus: Latest Global Developments

Paris, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st May, 2020 ) :Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis.

- Cases double in a month - The number of officially recorded cases of the novel coronavirus has doubled in one month, according to an AFP tally based on official sources.

Infections now top five million, with surges in particular in countries in Latin America.

Brazil leads the pack, logging the third-highest number of cases in the world after the US and Russia. Peru, Mexico and Chile are also seeing steady increases in infections.

- More than 328,000 deaths - There have been 5,012,630 officially recorded cases in 196 countries and territories.

The United States has recorded the most deaths at 93,439. It is followed by Britain with 35,704, Italy with 32,330, France with 28,132 and Spain with 27,888.

- China says it is 'transparent' - In a low-key rebuttal of the accusations by US President Donald Trump of mass killing, China maintains it has "always had an open, transparent and responsible attitude" as it battled the pandemic.

Speaking a day after Trump's remarks, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tells a press briefing: "We have persisted in speaking the truth, presenting the truth and speaking with reason, doing our utmost to protect the lives and health of the people." - Saving Lufthansa - German aviation giant Lufthansa confirms it is in talks with the government over a nine-billion-euro ($10 billion) rescue that will see Berlin take a massive stake in the coronavirus-stricken airline.

Under the plans, Berlin would take a 20-percent stake in the group, topping it up with a convertible bond worth five percent plus one share.

- Easyjet eases back - British airline EasyJet says it will return to the skies on June 15, with "a small number of flights", after grounding its entire fleet at the end of March.

The initial schedule will involve mostly domestic flying in the UK and France.

- Japan lifts emergency - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifts a state of emergency in several big cities in western Japan -- Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo -- and hints that the measure will be removed nationwide as early as next week.

- Russia gold mine cluster - A worker at Russia's largest gold mine has died from the virus, the operating company says, as troops set up quarantine camps to contain a major outbreak at the facility.

More than 140 workers at the Olimpiada mine and processing plant in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk are currently hospitalised and hundreds have tested positive.

- Astra gets $1 bl from US - British pharmaceuticals group AstraZeneca secures more than one billion Dollars from the United States to help fund production of its coronavirus vaccine.

AstraZeneca is partnering with University of Oxford to develop and distribute a vaccine being trialled in the UK.