A health worker in protective gear (front, right) takes a blood sample from a man (front, left) to test for COVID-19 at a plaza in Duque de Caxias, Brazil, June 8, 2020. (LEO CORREA / AP)

WASHINGTON / GENEVA / THE HAGUE / RIO DE JANEIRO / SAO PAULO / HAVANA / LONDON / ROME / PARIS / CAPE TOWN / KIGALI / MADRID / BERLIN / TRIPOLI - Transmission of the novel coronavirus by people who don’t develop symptoms is “very rare,” the World Health Organization said, playing down concerns that these so-called silent spreaders might serve as a major conduit for the disease.

“It still appears to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual,” Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said at a briefing in Geneva. She said her comment, which reiterates the group’s previous position on so-called asymptomatic cases, is based on detailed reports of contact tracing from various countries.

More research is needed to confirm the roles that asymptomatic cases and pre-symptomatic cases -- those who later go on to develop symptoms -- play in spreading the disease. Uncertainty over how the virus behaves has hindered nations’ efforts to re-open battered economies.

“Comprehensive studies on transmission from asymptomatic individuals are difficult to conduct, but the available evidence from contact tracing reported by member states suggests that asymptomatically-infected individuals are much less likely to transmit the virus than those who develop symptoms,” the WHO said in guidance on the use of face maks that it issued last week.

Presymptomatic individuals, who develop a higher viral load just before the onset of symptoms, may be infectious, the WHO said. The infection is spread by tiny droplets expelled when infected people sneeze, cough, speak or breathe.

Although the health organization had said as far back as February that it did not see asymptomatic cases as a major cause of viral spread, other researchers have sparked concern that the virus would be difficult to contain because of this route of transmission. 

More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general

The New England Journal of Medicine, in an article dated May 28, warned that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by seemingly healthy people is “the Achilles’ heel of COVID-19 pandemic control.”

Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday said that although the situation of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe is improving, it is worsening globally.

According to Tedros, more than 100,000 cases have been reported to the WHO in nine of the past 10 days, and on June 7, more than 136,000 cases were reported, "the most in a single day so far".

"Almost 7 million cases of COVID-19 have now been reported to WHO, and almost 400,000 deaths," Tedros said.

"More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal," he said at an online briefing.

ALSO READ: WHO recommends wider use of face masks to curb COVID-19

As for the situation in Africa, the WHO chief said that most countries there are still experiencing an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, with some reporting cases in new geographic areas.

"We also see increasing numbers of cases in parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia," he told reporters.

The WHO chief also reminded those countries with positive signs to avoid "complacency," since most people globally are still susceptible to infection.

Global tally

Worldwide deaths from the coronavirus pandemic topped 405,000, while infections crossed the 7 million mark, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. 

The United States suffered the most from the pandemic, with more than 1.95 million cases and a death toll surpassing 110,000.

Countries with over 200,000 cases also include Brazil, Russia, Britain, India, Spain, and Italy. 

The number of confirmed cases across the African continent reached 189,434 and the death toll rose to 5,175 as of Monday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Monday.

Angola

Angola has spent US$972,400 to conduct 12,155 tests of COVID-19 since testing began in March, Health Minister Silvia Lutucuta said on Monday.

Each COVID-19 test costs no less than US$80, without adding the costs of water, electricity, computer equipment and human resources, key elements for testing citizens, the minister said at a media brief.

The minister appealed to citizens to recognize the efforts that have been made by the government to save the lives of Angolans.

Lutucuta said so far the COVID-19 testing laboratories have received an accumulation of 12,155 samples, of which 11,719 are negative, 92 are positive and 344 are being processed.

The country has recorded a total of 92 positive cases of COVID-19 and four deaths. So far, 38 people have recovered. 

Brazil

Brazil’s top court waded into the controversy surrounding official reporting of coronavirus death and infection figures, as a Supreme Court justice ruled the Health Ministry must revert to releasing the full set of data it had previously made available.

Over the weekend the Health Ministry abruptly removed troves of detailed coronavirus data and said it would no longer publish cumulative totals, causing outrage across the political spectrum. Last week it pushed back the release of the numbers late into the evening and past Brazil’s main news program.

READ MORE: More confusion as Brazil issues contradictory data sets

In a statement posted to the Supreme Court website in the early hours of Tuesday, Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the Health Ministry must “fully re-establish the daily dissemination of epidemiological data on the COVID-19 pandemic, including on the agency’s website, under the terms presented until last Thursday.”

The government’s actions in recent days have made it “impossible” to monitor the spread of the virus and to implement adequate and necessary control and prevention policies, he said.

Failure to adopt internationally recognized methods of data collection, analysis, and dissemination could have “disastrous consequences” for Brazil, Moraes said.

The decision came after the ministry had already rowed back on its earlier position, saying on Monday evening that it would release data earlier and dismissing allegations that numbers were being manipulated.

Brazil’s confirmed cases, more than 700,000, are the second highest in the world behind only the United States, and the death toll is now over 37,000.

Cuba

New coronavirus cases in Cuba have dropped to less than 10 per day on average from a peak of around 50, and two thirds of the island is virus-free, according to official data.

Monday was the ninth consecutive day with no deaths from COVID-19.

Cuba, with a population of 11 million, has reported 2,200 cases and 83 deaths. That translates to 0.73 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.

"We could be shortly closing in on the tail end of the pandemic and entering the phase of recovery from COVID," President Miguel Diaz-Canel said this weekend.

Cuba's top epidemiologist, Francisco Duran, said early detection, hospitalization and the application of experimental treatments - many developed by the country's own biotech sector - have helped reduce COVID-19's fatality.

Children wearing face masks await the arrival of the first Cuban medical brigade of the Henry Reeve Contingent in Havana, Cuba, June 8, 2020. The Cuban doctors had traveled to Italy on March 22 to help with the COVID-19 emergency in the Lombardy region. (RAMON ESPINOSA / AP)

Denmark

Denmark plans to lift the limit on public gatherings from 50 to 100 people in July and to 200 in August as it eases measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, the government said on Monday.

Earlier on Monday, the government raised the limit on public gatherings from 10 to 50 and allowed fitness centers and public swimming pools to reopen.

The government said its plan to allow groups of 100 and 200 to gather from July 8 and Aug 8 respectively, could be changed depending on a possible second wave of coronavirus in the country.

Denmark had registered 593 coronavirus-related deaths on Monday, but the number of coronavirus-related deaths and hospital admissions has fallen since April.

Egypt

Egyptian Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said on Monday that the coronavirus pandemic has led to a decline in the country's GDP by about 130 billion Egyptian pounds (US$8 billion) during the current fiscal year.

The targeted growth rate in the current fiscal year has also decreased from six percent to four percent, the minister said in a statement.

Separately on Monday, Egypt reported 1,365 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally in the North African country to 35,444. It was the 12th straight day for Egypt's daily new COVID-19 infections to go beyond 1,000.

Another 34 fatalities were recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 1,271, said Khaled Megahed, the health ministry's spokesman, in a statement.

The total number of recoveries increased to 9,375 after 414 new ones were added, he added.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia's confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 2,156 after 136 more new cases were confirmed on Monday, the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Health also said that some 17 more patients have recovered on Monday, bringing the total number of recoveries to 361, while the number of COVID-19 related deaths in the East African country rose to 27.

Finland

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Finland has passed 7,000, including 949 healthcare staff, the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) said on Monday.

According to THL, as of Monday afternoon, Finland has confirmed a total of 7,001 COVID-19 infections, including 20 new cases. The death toll stands at 323, with no additional deaths reported in the past 24 hours. 

France

France launched what it said was a 15 billion euro (US$17 billion) rescue plan for its aerospace industry on Tuesday, warning 100,000 jobs were directly at stake due to the coronavirus crisis travel slump.

"In total, this plan will represent more than 15 billion euros of aid, investment, loans and guarantees," the government said in a statement. The total includes 7 billion euros of aid already announced for Air France and an acceleration of existing orders for Airbus tankers and other military kit.

On Monday, the number of coronavirus deaths reported in France was four times higher than a day earlier but the increase of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 was at a one-week low.

In a statement, the health ministry said the country's death toll rose by 54 to 29,209, the fifth-highest total in the world. On Sunday, 13 COVID-19 deaths were reported.

The figure could spike on Tuesday, the day now chosen by the government to add, once a week, data from nursing homes, which account for more than a third of the total deaths.

The number of confirmed cases rose by 211 to 154,188.

ALSO READ: New York starts to shake off virus; Europe recovering

Germany

Germany recorded an increase in the number of new coronavirus cases, and the infection rate climbed further above the key threshold of 1.0.

There were 359 new cases in the 24 hours through Tuesday morning, bringing the total to 186,109 according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That compares with 300 the previous day and almost 7,000 at the peak of the pandemic in late March.

According to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases on Tuesday, the number of confirmed cases increased by 252 to 184,193. The reported death toll rose by 16 to 8,674, the tally showed.

The country’s reproduction factor of the virus, known as R-naught, rose to 1.11 on Monday from 1.05 the day before, according to the latest estimate from RKI.

Greece

Greek authorities announced on Monday that 97 new COVID-19 infections and two fatalities were registered since Thursday.

The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 3,049, including 182 deaths since Feb 26 when the first infection was diagnosed, according to the National Public Health Organization.

Honduras

Honduras on Monday began gradually reopening its economy after almost three months of paralysis during the coronavirus pandemic, even as some doctors warned the healthcare system may be overloaded.

The Central American nation has so far registered 258 deaths caused by virus.

"The economy could not stay closed any longer," said President Juan Orlando Hernandez  in a pre-recorded television address on Monday, adding that a 5:00 pm to 7:00 am curfew will be maintained.

But the plans have alarmed some doctors who predict Honduras' underfunded healthcare system will struggle to cope.

"We'll be opening up the economy at a bad time when hospitals are on the verge of collapse due to the coronavirus," said Carlos Umana, president of the Medical Association of the Honduran Social Security Institute.

People bask in the sun at a public park in Dublin, Ireland, June 8, 2020. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Ireland

More businesses and public amenities in Ireland, including retail stores, public libraries and playgrounds, reopened on Monday as the country entered the first day of what the government called Phase 2 of the reopening of the society and businesses.

Also from Monday, more people are allowed to return to work so long as their workplace can guarantee that employees can work safely while keeping two meters away from each other. People can now travel freely within their own county or up to 20 kilometers away from their home, instead of the 5-km limit imposed in Phase 1.

People can also meet each other either indoors or outdoors as long as the meeting has less than six persons in number excluding the members of the same family. The maximum number of people attending a funeral is also increased to 25 from the past 10.

So far, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed 1,683 lives and infected a total of 25,207 people in Ireland, according to the statistics released by the Irish Department of Health on Monday.

Italy

Italy recorded another 65 deaths from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 33,964, the Civil Protection Department said on Monday.

Total active infections stood at 34,730, a decrease of 532 cases from Sunday. Meanwhile, another 747 COVID-19 patients have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 166,584 on Monday.

The overall number of active COVID-19 infections, fatalities and recoveries rose by 280 to 235,278 cases over the past 24 hours.

A sample survey has shown that 57 percent of the residents of the northern Italian city of Bergamo have COVID-19 antibodies, city health authorities said on Monday.

The city health authorities said the sample was "sufficiently broad" to be a reliable indicator of how many people had been infected in Bergamo, which became the epicenter of Italy's outbreak.

Kenya

Kenya reported 95 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total number of infections to 2,862, according to the Ministry of Health. 

A record 97 COVID-19 patients were discharged from various health facilities in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 849, said Rashid Aman, chief administrative secretary at the Ministry of Health, at a press briefing.

Aman said one death was reported in Nairobi, raising the death toll to 85.

Libya

The number of coronavirus cases has surged in Libya this month, with health authorities blaming the biggest outbreak in a southern city on the repatriation of nationals stranded abroad.

The National Centre for Disease Control last week announced more than 90 new cases in the southern city of Sebha after weeks with only a few dozen confirmed cases across the whole country.

By Tuesday, Libya had confirmed 332 cases of COVID-19, of which 142 were in Sebha and the others mostly in the northwest.

Libyan and international health agencies have warned of the high risks of any wave of coronavirus cases in Libya, where years of chaos and war have undermined the health system.

Libya closed its borders in March to stop the coronavirus spreading but last month began arranging flights to repatriate Libyans stuck abroad, without a quarantine requirement.

The disease control center attributed the cases in Sebha to people returning home, though the city medical center’s media office manager Mohamed Grain said they had not yet identified the “patient zero” who triggered the outbreak.

Malta

Malta on Monday announced a 900 million-euro (US$1.02 billion) package to help the country's economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19.

According to the prime minister, every resident aged over 16 in Malta will receive 100-euro vouchers to spend at bars, restaurants, hotels and retail outlets of their choice as part of the holistic package to kick-start the economy again after the COVID-19 hiccup.

Other measures include a price reduction of 7 cents of every liter petrol and diesel sold, a tax reduction on property sales and a cash grant of up to 2,000 euros to those couples who had to postpone their weddings due to the pandemic.

The airport will reopen on July 1. To encourage tourist arrivals, the Maltese government has promised that visitors will not be subject to a two-week quarantine and COVID-19 tests.

Mexico

The Mexican government reported 2,999 new coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing total confirmed infections to 120,102, according to data from the health ministry.

The country's official coronavirus death toll rose to 14,053, up from 13,699 on Sunday.

The government has said the actual number of infections and deaths caused by COVID-19 is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.

Morocco

A total of 78 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Morocco on Monday, bringing the total number of cases to 8,302.

The number of recoveries increased to 7,408 after 44 newly reported recoveries, Mouad Mrabet, coordinator of the Moroccan Center for Public Health, said at a press briefing.

Mrabet said the death toll remained at 208 as no additional fatalities were recorded in the last 24 hours.

Netherlands

Deaths from the coronavirus in the Netherlands increased by three since Sunday to a total of 6,016, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) said on Monday.

The number of confirmed cases grew by 165 to 47,739 between June 4 and June 8. 

Nigeria

As many as 60 percent of the "mysterious" deaths in Nigeria's northern Kano state were likely due to the coronavirus, the government's health minister said on Monday.

Nigeria's task force on COVID-19 sent a team to the northern economic hub in late April to investigate and conduct "verbal autopsies" after local newspaper the Daily Trust reported a spike in deaths to around 150 people in Kano city.

Government Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire said the investigation found a total of 979 deaths were recorded in eight municipal local government areas in Kano state at a rate of 43 deaths per day, compared with the typical death rate of roughly 11 deaths per day.

"With circumstantial evidence as all to go by, investigation suggests that between 50 percent to 60 percent of the deaths may have been triggered by or due to COVID-19, in the face of pre-existing ailments," Ehanire said.

Nigeria currently has 12,486 confirmed coronavirus cases, 999 of them in Kano, and a total of 354 deaths. Just 48 of the officially confirmed deaths due to COVID are in Kano state.

Children skate at a public area in downtown Moscow on June 9, 2020. (YURI KADOBNOV / AFP)

Russia

Russia reported 8,595 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the number of infections nationwide to 485,253. Out of those new cases, 1,572 were reported in Moscow, the country's worst-hit region.

The authorities said that 171 people had died from the virus in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death toll to 6,142.

Residents of Moscow began to resume their normal routines on Tuesday as a lockdown designed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus was lifted after more than two months despite the Russian capital still reporting over a thousand daily cases.

Moscow's nearly 13 million residents are now free to go outside when they want, use public transport, and travel across the city in their own vehicles without any restrictions or digital passes.

Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow's mayor, announced the easing on Monday, saying the pandemic was receding in the city and that he would start rolling back restrictions on Tuesday with others due to be removed later this month.

Sobyanin's announcement came shortly after Russia announced a partial reopening of its borders, saying it would allow people who needed to work, study, get medical treatment or look after relatives to travel abroad for the first time since late March.

Rwanda

Rwanda has started mass COVID-19 testing for every household in its western border town of Rusizi amid an expanding caseload, a local health official said Monday.

"So far, there are 43 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Rusizi alone. We have decided to conduct mass testing of every household, particularly in areas in Rusizi that lie along the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo border," Sabin Nsanzimana, director general of Rwanda Biomedical Center, told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

The target is to test more than 10,000 in Rusizi in order to ascertain the extent of the virus transmission in the area, he said.

Rusizi has been the lastest hotspot of COVID-19 outbreak in the country, following Rusizi-related cases continuously being reported in recent days.

The health ministry reported 12 new cases on Monday evening, all related to Rusizi, raising the country's tally to 451, including 297 recoveries and two deaths.

Slovenia

Slovenia has opened its borders to citizens of 14 states, including Germany and Switzerland, who can now travel to and from Slovenia without any coronavirus restrictions, the government said on its website on Monday.

The other countries are Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Slovakia and Liechtenstein.

The government also introduced an obligatory 14-day quarantine for everyone coming to Slovenia from North Macedonia, excluding diplomats, transport workers and those passing through Slovenia without an overnight stay. The move follows a surge in coronavirus cases in North Macedonia over recent days.

Slovenia has so far reported 1,485 coronavirus cases and 109 deaths. In May, it became the first European state to declare an end to its coronavirus epidemic.

Somalia

Somalia's health ministry on Monday confirmed 34 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country's tally to 2,368.

Health Minister Fawziya Abikar said majority of the cases were recorded in the self-declared region of Somaliland and Galmudug.

Abikar said another 29 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 470.

Abikar also said one more death was reported, bringing the total number of fatalities to 84.

South Africa

South Africa on Monday reported 82 deaths related with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 1,080.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in his daily update that the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country stood at 50,879, an increase of 2,594 from Sunday.

The Western Cape remained the hardest hit province of the virus in the country with 33,568 confirmed cases, followed by the Eastern Cape with 6,341, Gauteng with 6,258 and KwaZulu-Natal with 3,175.

The Hospital of Hope in Cape Town, one of Africa's biggest field hospital for COVID-19 patients, started admitting its first patients on Monday, exactly one month after work on the site first began.

Spain

Spain is not discussing any travel corridor with Britain, a Spanish foreign ministry source told Reuters after a UK tourism lobby group said corridors allowing unrestricted movement with a number of countries would open from June 29.

Spain is discussing with other European Union (EU) countries whether and how to allow tourism from Britain and other states, the source said.

Madrid hopes the EU will agree on common criteria over the coronavirus situation in a territory in order to allow tourists to travel, but will adopt its own criteria if there is no agreement at EU level, the source said.

Meanwhile, Spain will allow about 6,000 tourists from Germany, where the pandemic is largely under control, to fly to the Balearic Islands from June 15, two weeks before the country reopens its borders, to test how to restart tourism.

Spain on Monday reported 48 new cases of COVID-19, briging the country's tally to 241,717. The death toll remained at 27,136 as there were no additional deaths reported.

Switzerland

Switzerland's lower house of parliament gave a preliminary green light on Monday to contact tracing app SwissCovid, which should roll out this month to help contain the coronavirus pandemic.

The upper chamber of parliament already approved the app last week, meaning it is likely to pass final formal votes in both chambers next week, allowing the government to adopt a decree implementing the scheme.

The app is intended to complement manual contact tracing, with a phone call from a tracer as well as an app notification providing double confirmation that a person is at risk.

Switzerland has reported 30,972 cases of coronavirus and 1,661 deaths but has started easing restrictions on public life as the number of new cases each day has fallen sharply, with just seven reported on Monday.

Tunisia

Tunisian President Kais Saied decided Monday to lift the curfew imposed across the country to curb the spread of COVID-19.

According to a statement by the Tunisian Presidency, Saied has decided to lift the curfew starting from Monday.

"This is due to the positive results linked to the limitation of the spread of the new coronavirus," the statement reads.

Tunisia has reported no new COVID-19 cases for five days in a row, the Ministry of Health said on Monday.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country stands at 1,087.

Uganda

The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) has announced new measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 as it plans the reopening of the country's Entebbe International Airport.

Vianney Luggya, spokesperson for UCAA, told Xinhua by telephone on Monday that all passengers reaching the clearing terminals will have to be tested for COVID-19.

He said outbound passengers would be required to undergo a rapid test for the virus or present a valid health certificate from the Ministry of Health.

"Temperature screening, wearing of face masks, regular sanitizing and social distancing will also be emphasized throughout the various formalities," he said.

So far, Uganda has 646 COVID-19 cases, including 103 recoveries. No deaths have been registered, according to figures from the Ministry of Health. 

UK

Deaths involving the coronavirus in England and Wales fell to the lowest in eight weeks, even as the UK became the first in Europe with more than 51,000 mortalities linked to the virus.

The fall in the number of fatalities has allowed the UK government to ease its lockdown as it tries to restart the economy. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will brief the cabinet on Tuesday on his plans to ease restrictions on movement while trying to avoid a second wave of infections.

There were 1,822 deaths in England and Wales linked to the virus in the week ending May 29, a decline of 30 percent on the previous week, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Tuesday. That brings total deaths there to 46,350, based on mortalities up until that date that were registered by June 6.

Scotland and Northern Ireland had 3,911 and 754 deaths linked to the virus respectively, the latest figures from their statistics bodies show.

The British Department of Health and Social Care said Monday another 55 COVID-19 deaths were registered in Britain as of Sunday afternoon, bringing the death toll in the country to 40,597.

The daily rise in the number of coronavirus deaths was the lowest since before the lockdown on March 23. There were no additional fatalities reported by hospitals in London over the previous 24 hours for the first time since the lockdown began, according to NHS England. Also, no additional deaths were announced in both Scotland and Northern Ireland for the second consecutive day.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the R rate, which is the number of people infected by one person with COVID-19, was below one in all British regions.

The UK is likely to relax its strict quarantine policy for new arrivals on June 29, introducing travel corridors with some countries, according to tourism lobby group Quash Quarantine, which said it had received private assurances from senior government figures. Separately, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is due to make a statement on the issue in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Ukraine

Ukraine reported 394 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, taking its tally to 27,856, the country's health ministry said on Tuesday.

Since the beginning of the epidemic, 2,003 children and 5,135 health workers have been diagnosed with COVID-19. A total of 12,412 patients have recovered, including 897 children and  2,896 health workers, and 810 people have died so far in the country.

US

University of Washington researchers estimated on Monday that 145,728 people could die of COVID-19 in the United States by August, raising their grim forecast by more than 5,000 fatalities in a matter of days.

The new estimate came on the same day that a total of 22 US states showed an uptick in the number of new confirmed cases, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Coronavirus cases in the US increased 1.2 percent as compared to the same time Sunday, to 1.95 million, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News. That’s higher than Sunday’s 1 percent rate but matched the average over the past seven days. The death toll rose 0.7 percent to 110,771.

A US Navy investigation into the spread of the coronavirus aboard the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier has found that about 60 percent of the roughly 400 sailors tested had antibodies for the virus, three US officials told Reuters on Monday.

Meanwhile, New York City entered the first phase of reopening on Monday after nearly three months of lockdown. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said 35,000 coronavirus diagnostic tests will be done per day in New York City in phase one at over 240 sites across all five boroughs.