Doctor Dmitry Cheboksarov, left, wearing personal protective equipment works in the intensive care unit for the COVID-19 patients at Vinogradov City Clinical Hospital in Moscow on May 17, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)

MEXICO CITY / RIO DE JANEIRO / BISSAU / KINSHASA / LAGOS / MOSCOW / PARIS / ROME / WARSAW / LONDON / MADRID / TEGUCIGALPA / BERLIN / NAIROBI / CAPE TOWN - Russia already uses dexamethasone to treat patients with the novel coronavirus, but does not view it as a panacea against COVID-19, the RIA news agency cited Russian health ministry official Sergei Avdeev as saying on Wednesday.

Dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, has become the first drug shown to be able to save the lives of critically ill COVID-19 patients in what scientists said is a major breakthrough in the coronavirus pandemic.

Russia on Wednesday reported 7,843 new cases of the novel coronavirus, its lowest daily caseload registered since April 30, pushing the nationwide total to 553,301.

Russia's virus response team said 194 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 7,478 since the crisis began.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is protected from the coronavirus by special disinfection tunnels that anyone visiting his residence outside Moscow or meeting him in the Kremlin must pass through, his spokesman said on Wednesday.

One such special tunnel, manufactured by a Russian company based in the town of Penza, has been installed at Putin’s official Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow and two more in the Kremlin, said Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman.

He said they were installed at the height of the pandemic in Russia which authorities say is now on the wane, particularly in Moscow where lockdown restrictions are being lifted.

This handout picture released by the Honduran Presidency shows Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaking in a televised message to the nation on the COVID-19 from the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on May 1, 2020. (HONDURAN PRESIDENCY / AFP)

Honduras

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said late on Tuesday he has been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, is receiving treatment and will work remotely and through his aides.

"As president of the nation and a responsible citizen, I want to communicate that during the weekend I started to feel some discomfort and today I was diagnosed as having been infected with COVID-19," Hernandez said in a televised speech.

"They have recommended rest but I will continue working remotely and through my aides," he said.

He said he has been experiencing mild symptoms and started receiving treatment and is feeling better.

Hernandez's wife and two of his aides have also been diagnosed with the coronavirus and they are all being treated.

Honduras has reported 9,656 known coronavirus cases and 330 deaths.

Global tally

The number of coronavirus cases worldwide was more than 8.18 million on Wednesday and global death toll neared 444,000, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

The United States suffered the most from the pandemic, with more than 2.1 million cases and a toll nearing 117,000. Countries with over 200,000 cases also include Brazil, Russia, India, Britain, Spain, Italy and Peru, according to the Johns Hopkins tally.

WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was moving to update its guidelines on treating people stricken with COVID-19 to reflect results of a clinical trial that showed a cheap, common steroid can help save critically ill patients.

Trial results announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in diseases such as arthritis, cut death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital.

"This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement late on Tuesday. The agency said it was looking forward to the full data analysis of the study in coming days.

"WHO clinical guidance will be updated to reflect how and when the drug should be used in COVID-19," the agency added.

But South Korea's top health official cautioned about the use of the drug for COVID-19 patients, saying that "some experts have warned of the drug not only reducing the inflammatory response in patients, but also the immune system and may trigger side effects".

Albania

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Tuesday warned of tougher measures against those defying sanitary rules, as the country's total confirmed coronavirus cases topped 1,600 after a record daily jump in new infections.

Via a video message on Facebook, Rama warned that the country risks closing for a second time if the number of cases keeps increasing. He emphasized that he will no longer allow mass gatherings.

Rama warned businesses to adhere to health safety protocol to prevent the spread of infection, otherwise they will face sanctions and even imprisonment. He underlined that citizens will continue to move freely, but they risk being penalized if caught in violation of the rules, such as social distancing in public areas.

On Tuesday, health authorities reported a record daily rise of 82 new cases, bringing the total to 1,672, with 1,064 recoveries and 37 fatalities.

Algeria

Algerian health authorities on Tuesday reported 116 new COVID-19 cases and another 11 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to 11,147 and the death toll to 788.

Head of the COVID-19 Detection and Follow-up Commission Djamel Fourar said that 107 more patients have been discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recoveries to 7,842.

Kamal Sanhadji, head of the Algerian Health Security Agency,  said he expected that COVID-19 cases will see a downward trend as of July in Algeria.

"Starting from next month Algerians will be able to coexist normally with the COVID-19 just like any other viruses such as seasonal flu," Sanhadji was quoted as saying by the state run radio Channel III.

Brazil

Brazil reported a record 34,918 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the same day that one of the senior officials leading the country's widely criticized response to the crisis said the outbreak was under control.

Brazil, the world's No. 2 coronavirus hotspot after the United States, is fast approaching 1 million cases, with the tally now standing at 923,189.

ALSO READ: Brazil surpasses UK in virus deaths, now 2nd in world

Brazil also registered 1,282 COVID-19 deaths since its last update on Monday, the Health Ministry said, bringing confirmed fatalities in the country to 45,241.

Walter Braga Netto, the head of the office of the president's chief of staff, known as Casa Civil, and one of the top officials handling the crisis, said it was under control. Braga Netto said Brazil's deaths-per-million-people figure was better than that of Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy and France. As such, the Army general said he "was trying to convey a message of optimism in the management of the crisis."

However, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa Etienne said in a video briefing from Washington that they were "not seeing transmission slowing down" in Brazil.

Chile

A rash of accounting glitches in Chile led to the omission of more than 31,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, or nearly one-sixth of the country's total so far, health officials said on Tuesday.

The cases, discovered during a review of the health ministry's databases, stemmed back to mid-March, when the outbreak began in Chile, authorities said.

The accounting confusion comes as cases are soaring in the South American nation, averaging over 5,000 daily. On Tuesday, Chile reported a total of 184,449 infections and 3,383 deaths from the disease.

The additional 31,412 cases discovered by authorities will be added to Chile's total tally on Wednesday, Araos said.

Meanwhile, President Sebastian Pinera on Tuesday signed a bill that will raise the government's aid for the poorest amid the pandemic from 65,000 pesos to 100,000 pesos (from US$83 to US$128) per person. Some 5.6 million people stand to benefit from the bill, according to the office of the president.

Soldiers in full protection gear prepare to disinfect an area during an event where an army kitchen was serving food for people facing hardship because of lost income due to the new coronavirus pandemic, in Maipu, on the outskirts of Santiago, Chile, June 16, 2020. (ESTEBAN FELIX / AP)

Denmark

One person who participated in the "Black Lives Matter" demonstration in Copenhagen on June 7 has tested positive for COVID-19, Demark's health minister said Tuesday, urging all demonstrators to get tested.

"We do not know, and probably will never know if the person was infected during the demonstration," said Minister for Health and Senior Citizens Magnus Heunicke during a press conference.

As of Tuesday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Denmark stood at 12,250, including 598 deaths, according to the latest official figure published by the Statens Serum Institut.  

DRC

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) southeastern mining heartland announced temporary lockdowns on Tuesday in an effort to widen coronavirus testing and prevent a worrying situation from worsening, governors said.

Cases have multiplied in the central African nation despite the imposition of short-term lockdowns in some urban centers and restrictions on movement. 

Jacques Kyabula Katwe, governor of the mineral-rich Haut-Katanga province, said a new 48-hour lockdown would come into force in the mining hub of Lubumbashi and the border towns of Kasumbalesa and Kipushi over the coming weekend.

Separately, the governor's office of neighboring Lualaba province said passenger traffic would be suspended with Haut-Katanga between June 18 and 22. Food, medical and mineral transport would not be affected, it said in a statement.

The DRC has so far confirmed nearly 5,000 cases of COVID-19 and 112 deaths. Its figures are "a likely underestimate given the limited COVID-19 testing capabilities within the country," medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said.

Egypt

Egypt confirmed on Tuesday 1,567 new COVID-19 cases, raising the country's tally to 47,856, Health Minister Hala Zayed said.

Another 94 deaths were registered, bringing the death toll to 1,766, Zayed said at a press conference.

The minister added that 401 more patients have been discharged from hospitals, raising the total number of recoveries to 12,730.

France

The number of people who died from coronavirus infection in France rose by 111 to 29,547 on Tuesday with the health ministry including weekly data for the death toll in nursing homes.

The number of people who died in hospitals increased by 38 to 19,090 on Tuesday, compared to 29 on Monday and an average of 25 over the past seven days.

The ministry also reported that in the past seven days 73 people died of the virus in nursing homes, more than double the 34 reported a week ago and the 23 reported two weeks ago.

The number of new coronavirus infections increased by 344 to 157,716, ministry data showed, compared to a seven-day average increase of 446.

ALSO READ: Germany rolls out COVID-19 tracing app to fight second wave

Germany

Germany’s coronavirus infection rate fell to 1.0, a key threshold for epidemiologists, after hovering above it for three days. 

There were 570 new infections in the 24 hours through Wednesday morning, bringing the total to 188,252 according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Fatalities increased by 13 to 8,820. 

According to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases on Wednesday, the number of confirmed cases increased by 345 to 187,184, and the reported death toll rose by 30 to 8,830.

Germany will extend a ban of large events until at least the end of October, broadcaster n-tv reported on Wednesday, citing a state government draft. Schools are to open normally after the summer break, if the virus situation doesn’t re-escalate before.

Germany's smartphone app to help trace coronavirus infections has been downloaded 6.5 million times in the first 24 hours since its launch, the chief executive of software company SAP said. 

Meanwhile, unlisted German biotech firm CureVac will become the second company to launch human trials of an experimental coronavirus vaccine in the country, Germany's vaccines regulator said.

Guinea-Bissau

More than 170 of Guinea-Bissau's 2,000 health workers have contracted COVID-19, a WHO expert said on Tuesday, warning that hospitals were close to being overwhelmed.

The tiny West African nation's under-equipped healthcare system has been struggling to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has infected over 1,400 people and killed 15.

Health authorities have raised the alarm over a lack of oxygen to treat patients.

"The three main Bissau hospitals are currently facing rooms filled with COVID-19 patients and a breakdown in essential medical services," said Joana Cortez, a WHO expert in Guinea-Bissau.

Cortez said 176 health workers in the country had tested positive for the coronavirus. 

Italy

Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 34 on Tuesday, against 26 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases declined to 210 from 303 on Monday.

The total death toll now stands at 34,405, the agency said, the fourth highest in the world after those of the United States, Britain and Brazil.

The number of confirmed cases amounts to 237,500, the seventh highest global tally.

People registered as currently carrying the illness fell to 24,569 from 25,909 the day before.

READ MORE: Rome's cafes hope to brew a revival

Kenya

Kenya's Ministry of Health on Tuesday announced plans to review COVID-19 testing guidelines in line with the WHO's new findings of asymptomatic patients.

Mutahi Kagwe, the ministry's cabinet secretary, said that according to the WHO guidelines, patients are to be released from a quarantine center after nine to 10 days, as opposed to two weeks that is currently being practiced in the country.

Kagwe noted that asymptomatic patients will be assigned public health officials or community health workers for observation on a daily basis.

The cabinet secretary was speaking in Nairobi when he announced that the country so far has 3,860 total COVID-19 cases from 121,956 samples that have been tested since the disease was reported in mid-March.

A total of1,326 patients have recovered from hospitals while 105 deaths have been registered.  

Malta

Malta will lift the public health emergency on June 30, local media reported Tuesday.

Through a Legal Notice issued on Monday evening, Malta's Health Minister and Superintendent of Public Health announced the repealing of a set of measures imposed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The order is to lift the remaining measures including the closure of schools, the ban on mass public events, the suspension of legal timeframes since all law courts and tribunals had been shut as well as the limit on the maximum number of people allowed to be seen together in public spaces.

The government also published on Monday another Legal Notice permitting travel to and from 22 destinations from July 1. These countries are: Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Italy (with the exception of Emilia Romagna, Lombardy and Piemonte), France (with the exception of Ile-de-France), Slovakia, Switzerland, Greece, Croatia, Spain (with the exception of Madrid, Catalonia, Castilla-La Mancha, Castile and Leon), and Poland.

Restrictions to all other destinations will be lifted by July 15. 

Mexico

Mexico's total confirmed coronavirus infections rose to 154,863 cases and 18,310 total deaths on Tuesday, as the health ministry reported 4,599 new infections along with 730 additional fatalities.

The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the official count.

Mexico and the United States have extended restrictions on non-essential travel across their shared border for 30 days, Mexico's foreign ministry said in a tweet earlier Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Mexico will stop sending temporary workers to Canadian farms that have registered a coronavirus outbreak and that do not have proper worker protections, Mexico's labor ministry said, although it will not completely suspend the program. The decision came after a coronavirus outbreak in Ontario hit at least 17 farms, killing two Mexican workers aged 24 and 31, and prompting the testing of about 8,000 migrant farm workers.

A worker disinfects chairs at the Mohammed V airport in Casablanca, Morocco, June 16, 2020. (ABDELJALIL BOUNHAR / AP)

Morocco

Morocco registered 46 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health said.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country hit 8,931 while the death toll stood at 212, said Hind Ezzine, the head of the department of epidemic diseases of the Ministry of Health, at a regular press briefing.

The number of recoveries rose by 109 to 7,937 with 109, Ezzine said.

Nigeria

Nigeria's commercial hub Lagos has suspended plans to reopen places of worship after a review of the coronavirus outbreak, the state governor said on Tuesday.

Places of worship were due to open from June 19.

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu told journalists the closures would be effective until further notice.

Lagos state, whose capital city of 20 million inhabitants bears the same name, is the epicentre of the outbreak in Nigeria. The country that has recorded 16,658 confirmed cases and 424 deaths.

Poland

Poland is set to reopen its airports for international passenger flights within the European Union (EU) from Tuesday midnight, while the country's confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeded 30,000.

Other international flights remain banned until at least June 30. Domestic flights resumed on June 1.

Passengers will be required to fill in a health declaration form before boarding any aircraft. Those whose body temperature exceed 38 degrees Celsius will be refused boarding.

Meanwhile, the country's Civil Aviation Authority decided to bar flights on Tuesday to give airports one more day to prepare for new sanitary measures, including making face mask dispensers and hand sanitizers available for passengers.

On Tuesday, Poland reported 407 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the nation's tally to 30,195. Out of the new cases, more than half were reported in Silesia, a southern region with a prominent coal mining industry.

South Africa

South Africa reported 2,801 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said early Wednesday.

The addition of the new cases raised the country's tally to 76,334, the ministry said in its latest update.

Another 57 deaths were reported, pushing the death toll to 1,625, the ministry said.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize warned that the country would see more deaths related to COVID-19 in the coming days as infections surge.

Spain

The death toll from COVID-19 has remained unchanged in Spain for nine consecutive days, standing at 27,136, data published by the Spanish Ministry of Health showed on Tuesday.

Answering a question from Xinhua, the Ministry of Health admitted that there's a delay in data updates as the country's 17 Autonomous Communities were "refining their data and introducing that data into the system."

Tuesday also saw 76 new cases of COVID-19, taking the total number to 244,328.

The Basque region in the north of Spain and the neighboring Autonomous Community of Cantabria on Tuesday both confirmed they would be ending the State of Alarm on June 19 - two days before the rest of the country.

UK

Britain's health minister on Wednesday hailed the use of a steroid called dexamethasone for treating coronavirus patients as the best news so far of the outbreak.

Trial results announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases such as arthritis, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital.

"It does increase your chances of survival quite significantly," Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News. "It reduces your chances of dying when you are on a ventilator," Hancock said. 

Britain's health ministry on Tuesday said the drug had been approved for use in the state-run health service, export restrictions had been introduced and Britain had stockpiled 200,000 courses of the treatment.

Meanwhile, Hancock said Wednesday that the R-rate was below 1 in all regions but did not clarify if he was speaking about England or the entire United Kingdom.

Britain has so far reported 41,969 deaths from COVID-19, according to government data.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday he wanted to see unrestricted travel to Spain and France "as soon as we can", but defended his government's quarantine policy on arriving visitors.

Visitors wearing face masks stroll through the Disney Springs shopping, dining and entertainment complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, June 16, 2020. (JOHN RAOUX / AP)

US

New coronavirus infections hit record highs in six US states on Tuesday, marking a rising tide of cases for a second consecutive week as most states moved forward with reopening their economies.

Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas all reported record increases in new cases on Tuesday after recording all-time highs last week. Nevada also reported its highest single-day tally of new cases on Tuesday, up from a previous high on May 23. Hospitalizations are also rising or at record highs.

Health officials in many states attribute the spike to businesses reopening and Memorial Day weekend gatherings in late May. Many states are also bracing for a possible increase in cases stemming from protests over racial injustice and police brutality in the past three weeks.

ALSO READ: Infections surge after holiday as US relaxes curbs

In Oregon, health officials are trying to contain an outbreak of over 200 new cases in Union county linked to the a church. 

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott said the record number of new cases is due to more testing. Hospitalizations - a metric not linked to increased testing - also hit a record high. 

Vice-President Mike Pence pushed back against talk of a second wave of infections, citing increased testing.

More than 2.1 million people have been infected with the coronavirus in the United States and over 116,000 have died from COVID-19, by far the most in the world.

Sweden

COVID-19 deaths have exceeded 5,000 in Sweden, according to statistics from the Swedish Public Health Agency on Wednesday.

With 102 new deaths reported in the past 24 hours, a total of 5,041 people have died of COVID-19 in Sweden, showed the statistics.

Meanwhile, coronavirus infections increased by 1,239 cases compared with the previous day, taking the country's total infections to 54,562.

The number of people who were and are treated in intensive care in Sweden stands at 2,322. 

Senegal

Senegal's Ministry of Health and Social Action on Wednesday reported 122 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 5,369 in the country.

The 122 were 111 follow-up contact cases and 11 community-transmission ones, health ministry spokesperson Alyose Waly Diouf told a daily briefing on the pandemic.

Romania

The Romanian authorities announced on Wednesday that 345 COVID-19 infection cases have been recorded in the country in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day number since May 7.

Meanwhile, 14 new deaths from the novel coronavirus were recorded in the period, said the Strategic Communication Group (GCS), the official COVID-19 communication task force, in its daily report.

So far, the total COVID-19 cases in the country reached 22,760, among whom there were 16,117 recoveries and 1,451 deaths.

Belarus 

Belarus reported 663 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking its total to 56,032.

The country also reported 1,462 new recovered cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 32,735, while 324 people with chronic diseases have died, according to the country's health ministry.

As of Wednesday, nearly 779,000 tests for COVID-19 have been conducted across the country, the ministry said.