Brazil on Tuesday approved clinical trials starting in August for a potential COVID-19 vaccine under joint development by U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech – the third such vaccine to be tested in the country. With more than 2.1 million confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, Brazil has the world’s worst outbreak outside the United States, making it prime testing grounds for vaccines. Undiagnosed virus infections could be 27 times higher in South Korea’s Daegu city: study

A small South Korean survey of people with no history of COVID-19, but living in a city with the most cases, showed that one in nine had antibodies to the novel coronavirus, indicating the virus may have spread more widely than thought. The study said based on the survey, roughly 185,290 people could have contracted the virus in Daegu city, which is the country’s fourth-largest city with a population of 2.5 million. Melbourne residents ordered to wear masks as Australia coronavirus cases rise

Residents of Australia’s second most populous city Melbourne must wear masks when leaving home from Wednesday, as tougher border restrictions were put in place with neighboring New South Wales state to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Cross-border travel between Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) will now only be permitted for work, education or medical care, after the border was closed earlier this month for the first time in 100 years. Wave of promising study results raises hopes for coronavirus vaccines

Early data from trials of three potential COVID-19 vaccines released on Monday, including a closely-watched candidate from Oxford University, increased confidence that a vaccine can train the immune system to recognize and fight the novel coronavirus without serious side effects. Whether any of these efforts will result in a vaccine capable of protecting billions of people and ending the global pandemic that has claimed more than 600,000 lives is still far from clear. All will require much larger studies to prove they can safely prevent infection or serious disease. Trump shifts rhetoric as he urges mask-wearing, warns of worsening pandemic

President Donald Trump, in a shift in rhetoric and tone, encouraged Americans on Tuesday to wear masks if they cannot maintain social distance and warned that the coronavirus pandemic would get worse before it got better. In his first press briefing in months focused on the outbreak, Trump urged young people to avoid going to crowded bars and maintained that the virus would disappear at some point. Coronavirus pandemic ‘showing no signs of slowing down’ in Americas – PAHO

The novel coronavirus pandemic is showing “no signs of slowing down” in the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization’s director said on Tuesday, with the virus landing in Guianese shield countries on the continent`s northeastern coast and surges in Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. Carissa Etienne told a virtual briefing from PAHO’s Washington headquarters that some Central American nations were seeing their highest weekly increase of cases since the virus landed, and that because of the high burden of infectious diseases and chronic conditions in the Americas, three out of 10 people – 325 million – were at “increased risk” of developing complications from COVID-19. California COVID-19 cases top 400,000, soon to overtake New York as worst-hit state

California on Tuesday became the second U.S. state after New York to report more than 400,000 COVID-19 cases, according to a Reuters tally of county data. The most populous U.S. state has a total of 400,166 COVID-19 cases, putting it on the verge of surpassing New York – the original epicenter of the nation’s outbreak – for the highest number of infections since the novel coronavirus was first detected in the United States in January. U.S. records over 1,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day for first time since early June

U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus rose by more than 1,000 on Tuesday, the biggest single-day increase since early June, according to a Reuters tally. After weeks of declining fatalities, there were more than 5,200 U.S. COVID-19 deaths in the week ended July 19, up 5% from the previous seven days, a Reuters analysis found. That was the second successive week of rising deaths. Japan approves dexamethasone as coronavirus treatment

Japan’s health ministry has approved dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, as a second treatment of COVID-19 after a trial in Britain showed the drug reduced death rates in hospitalised patients. The ministry included dexamethasone as an option for treatment along with Gilead Sciences Inc’s antiviral drug remdesivir in a recent revision to its handbook. The revision was widely reported by Japanese media on Wednesday and was viewed by Reuters.