In this file photo, the Uber logo appears on a smartphone in this photograph at a taxi stand in London, UK.  (PHOTO / VCG)

MADRID / ABUJA / HAVANA / MEXICO CITY / LIMA / ACCRA / BERLIN / LONDON / MOSCOW / ADDIS ABABA / HARARE - Uber Technologies Inc has quietly launched a service to give public health officials quick access to data on drivers and riders presumed to have come into contact with someone infected with COVID-19, company officials told Reuters.

The service, offered free of charge, could help burnish the image of the ride-hailing giant, which recently launched a new ad campaign spotlighting its “No Mask, No Ride” policy in the United States.

Now being promoted to government health officials in all the countries where it operates, the service provides health departments with data about who used Uber’s services and when and allows health agencies to urge affected users into quarantine, the company officials said.

Information on an individual can be accessed in a few hours, the officials said, with the company considering COVID-19 an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury.

Though Uber has provided the data for months now, it has not been put to use in many US virus hotspots.

Florida reported over 12,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the fifth day in a row the state has announced over 10,000 new infections, even as US President Donald Trump pledged that "it's going to be under control".

The virus has claimed over 140,000 US lives since the pandemic started, and Florida, California, and other Southern and Western states shatter records every day.

Democratic Representative Donna Shalala said Florida’s COVID-19 outbreak is “totally out of control” and called for a lockdown of the third most-populous US state.

Texas reported 7,300 new cases on Sunday after five straight days of new infections exceeding 10,000.

Despite record levels of new cases nationwide, the Trump administration is pushing for schools to reopen in a few weeks and resisting a federal mandate to wear masks in public.

Cleaning staff in protective gear pull lidded trash boxes in a line to minimize contamination after collecting personal protective equipment used by doctors who treated patients infected with COVID-19 in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Saint Petros Hospital, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 17, 2020. (AMANUEL SILESHI / AFP)

Africa

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent reached 720,622 on Monday morning, an increase of nearly 20,000 from Sunday's 701,573, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The death toll rose to 15,082, Africa CDC said in its latest situation update.

South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria, Morocco, and Cameroon are among the most affected countries in Africa.

More than 15,000 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Africa, according to the Africa CDC

Southern Africa is now the most affected region in terms of confirmed cases, followed by the northern region and the western region, the CDC said.

Globally, more than 14.5 million confirmed cases and 606,000 deaths had been reported, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The United States is the worst-hit nation, with more than 3.7 million confirmed cases and 140,000 deaths. 

Other countries with more than 250,000 cases include Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Peru, Chile, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Spain.

Brazil

Brazil’s minister of Citizenship, Onyx Lorenzoni, said on Monday he tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

He is the third minister infected with COVID-19 in the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who also tested positive for the disease earlier in July after coming down with a fever.

In his Twitter account, Lorenzoni said he started to feel the symptoms last Thursday and took the coronavirus test on Friday. The minister added he is being treated with a combination of drugs that includes chloroquine from which his body is showing “positive effects”.

Bolsonaro, himself a longtime advocate of the supposed virtues of the malaria drug to fight COVID-19, is also taking hydroxychloroquine and credits its use to his mild symptoms.

Brazil reported 2,098,389 confirmed cases of coronavirus by Sunday, with a total death toll of almost 80,000.

ALSO READ: Bolsonaro tells supporters anti-virus measures kill

Bulgaria

Bulgaria's COVID-19 death toll rose to 300 after one death was reported in the past 24 hours, official figures showed Monday.

According to the country's health ministry, the number of confirmed infections has reached 8,733, an increase of 95 over Sunday.

Meanwhile, 25 more people have recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 4,106, the ministry said.

Chile

Chile on Sunday reported 2,082 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the nation’s infection tally to 330,930.

Another 58  deaths were recorded in the the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 8,503, the Ministry of Health said.

Some 20,633 cases are considered to be still active, while a total of 301,794 former COVID-19 sufferers have recovered, the ministry said.

The government is poised to present a plan to gradually lift lockdowns in areas where the measures are still in place so businesses can begin to operate.

Cuba

Cuba for the first time in 130 days on Sunday said there were no new domestic cases of COVID-19 as most of the country moved into the final phase of resuming normal activities with masks and social distancing.

Francisco Duran, head of epidemiology at the Ministry of Public Health, and who has updated the country daily on the pandemic, took off his mask during the national broadcast for only the second time deliver the good news.

Only a handful of COVID-19 cases were reported in Cuba over the last week, all in Havana. Most of the Caribbean island, home to 11.2 million inhabitants, has been free of the disease for more than a month.

The capital's 2.2 million residents remain at the first phase of three stages of reopening where they can once more move around on public and private transport, go to the beach and other recreation centers, and enjoy a seaside drive just in time for the summer break. They can also dine and have a drink.

Interprovincial transportation begins during phase two while phase three includes schools reopening and broadens international travel depending on risk.

Cuba's robust and free community-based health system, door-to-door search for carriers, isolation of the sick, suspected cases and contacts has allowed it to keep the number of infections under 2,500, with 87 deaths.

People spend the afternoon on Playa del Salado beach in Caimito, Artemisa province, Cuba, July 15, 2020. (RAMON ESPINOSA / AP)

Egypt

Egypt's parliament, or the House of Representatives, approved on Monday a presidential decree extending the state of emergency in the country for three more months starting from July 27, state-run Nile TV reported.

"The decision has been taken to face the ongoing dangerous health and security conditions in the country," the general committee of the House of Representatives said.

According to the decree, "the armed forces and the police will take the necessary measures to fight terrorism and its finance, maintain security nationwide, protect public and private properties and preserve the lives of citizens."

According to the Egyptian constitution, presidential decisions to renew the state of emergency must be approved by the country's parliament.

Egypt confirmed on Sunday 603 new COVID-19 infections, raising the country’s tally to 87,775, said the Health Ministry.

Sunday's daily infections marked the lowest since May 19, when 720 new cases were reported. It was also the 11th consecutive day for Egypt's daily infections to be below 1,000.

Meanwhile, 51 more people died from COVID-19, the lowest since June 13, raising the death toll to 4,302, the ministry said.

Recoveries rose by 512 to to 28,380, it added.

El Salvador

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said on Sunday that he would postpone the second phase of the country's economic reopening, slated to begin Tuesday, after evaluating inputs from experts and the Salvadoran health ministry.

Just on Saturday, the president had reiterated his intention to move forward with the next stage of restarting the economy.

El Salvador has registered a total of 11,846 coronavirus cases and 335 deaths.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia on Sunday reported 704 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily increase so far, bringing the country's total number of confirmed cases to 10,207.

Among the new cases, 551 were reported in the capital Addis Ababa, the Ministry of Health said in a statement issued late Sunday.

Three more deaths were reported, raising the death toll to 170.

The ministry said the number of recoveries rose by 196 to 5,137.  

ALSO READ: Translations reach out to millions in pandemic

Germany

Germany recorded a drop in the number of new coronavirus cases, and the infection rate fell while remaining above the key threshold of 1.0. 

There were 155 new cases in the 24 hours through Monday morning, bringing the total to 202,735 according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

According to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) Monday, the number of confirmed cases increased by 249 to 201,823 while the reported death toll rose by two to 9,086.

The reproduction factor of the virus declined to 1.25 on Sunday from 1.42 the day before, according to the latest estimate from RKI. 

Ghana

Ghana's strategy for managing the COVID-19 pandemic has yielded positive results, the director-general of the Ghana Health Service said  Sunday.

The positive outcomes in the disease management were due to the strategy of early detection, quarantine and treatment the government had adopted from the beginning of the pandemic, Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said.

"Daily recoveries are going up while daily infections rate is declining," Kuma-Aboagye said.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Ghana reached 27,667 late Sunday, with 23,249 recoveries and 148 deaths.

Kenya

Kenya's Ministry of Health on Sunday announced that the country's COVID-19 tally has passed the 13,000 mark amid a spike in the number of infections for the past two weeks.

Mutahi Kagwe, cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Health, said 603 new cases were detected in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall tally to 13,353.

He said 682 more patients have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries so far to 5,122.

Another nine deaths were registered, raising the death toll to 234, according to Kagwe. 

Luxembourg

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said he would impose new restrictions after an emergency meeting on rising cases, saying the nation is not respecting measures to curb COVID-19.

The country has so far reported 5,605 confirmed cases and 111 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Mexico

Mexico's Health Ministry on Sunday reported 5,311 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 296 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 344,224 cases and 39,184 deaths.

The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.

READ MORE: WHO reports record daily rise in global virus cases for 2nd day

Cyclists wearing face masks to curb the spread of the new coronavirus cycle in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City, July 19, 2020. (MARCO UGARTE / AP)

Morocco

Morocco registered 221 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, raising the tally of infections in the country to 17,236, the Ministry of Health said.

The death toll rose by four to 273 while the number of recoveries increased by 301 to 14,921, according to Hind Ezzine, head of the department of epidemic diseases of the Ministry of Health.

Nigeria

Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama said on Sunday he had tested positive for COVID-19, and became the first member of President Muhammadu Buhari's cabinet to contract the new coronavirus.

Onyeama, 64, said on Twitter he had taken a COVID-19 test because of a throat irritation. "Did my fourth Covid-19 test yesterday at the first sign of a throat irritation and unfortunately this time it came back positive," he tweeted. "Heading for isolation in a health facility and praying for the best."

Buhari's cabinet has been conducting executive council meetings virtually as part of measures to keep the government working while abiding by social distancing rules.

So far, Nigeria has reported more than 36,663 confirmed cases and 789 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Peru

Peru's COVID-19 death toll rose to 13,187 after 189 more patients died of the disease in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said on Sunday.

In the same period, 4,090 new cases were reported. 

The healthcare system has to date processed some 2,063,240 tests, with 353,590 positive results, the ministry said in its daily report.

Of the positive cases, 241,955 have completed their periods of quarantine at home or have been discharged from a hospital.

Poland

The number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Poland rose to 40,104 after the health ministry reported 358 new cases on Sunday.

A total of 1,624 people have succumbed to the disease.

Among the new cases, 115 were discovered in the southern Lesser Poland province, where the coronavirus spread to a care home in Bochnia county. Local media reported that 75 new cases were reported in that county alone, centered around the village of Drwinia.

Russia

Russia reported 5,940 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Monday, pushing its total infection tally to 777,486, the fourth largest in the world.

In a daily readout, officials said 85 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 12,427.

Scores of members of Russia’s business and political elite have been given early access to an experimental vaccine against COVID-19, according to people familiar with the effort, as the country races to be among the first to develop an inoculation.

Top executives at companies including aluminum giant United Co. Rusal, as well as billionaire tycoons and government officials began getting shots developed by the state-run Gamaleya Institute in Moscow as early as April, the people said. They declined to be identified as the information isn’t public.

The Gamaleya vaccine, financed by the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund and backed by the military, last week completed a phase 1 trial involving Russian military personnel. The institute hasn’t published results for the study, which involved about 40 people, but has begun the next stage of trials with a larger group.

Gamaleya’s press office couldn’t be reached by phone Sunday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn’t respond to a text message asking whether President Vladimir Putin or others in his administration have had the shots. A government spokesman couldn’t immediately comment.

READ MORE: Moscow claims lead in vaccine hunt

Spain

Authorities in Catalonia on Sunday urged more than 96,000 people in three towns to stay at home, as coronavirus cases continued to rise in one of Spain's worst-hit regions.

This is in addition to some four million people in the region, including in its capital Barcelona, that were on Friday urged to stay at home as regional authorities toughened their response to the crisis.

In a statement on Sunday, authorities urged people living in Figueres and Vilafant, in the province of Girona, and Sant Feliu de Llobregat, near Barcelona, to stay at home except for essential journeys. 

The latest figures from Catalonia's regional health ministry on Saturday showed a daily increase of 1,226 cases. Nationwide, Spain, one of Europe's hardest-hit countries, has reported more than 260,000 confirmed cases and 28,000 deaths.

UK

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday he could not promise there would be successful vaccine against COVID-19 developed by the end of this year, saying “we’re not there yet” even as Britain lines up supplies.

“To say that I’m 100% confident that we’ll get a vaccine, this year or indeed next year, is alas, just an exaggeration. We’re not there yet,” Johnson said after Britain announced supply deals for two more vaccines under development.

Britain has signed deals to secure 90 million doses of two possible COVID-19 vaccines from the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech alliance and French group Valneva, the business ministry said on Monday.

Britain had secured 30 million doses of the experimental BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, and a deal in principle for 60 million doses of the Valneva vaccine, with an option of 40 million more doses if it was proven to be safe, effective and suitable, the ministry said.

The government said it’s setting up a program seeking 500,000 volunteers to participate in clinical trials.

The deals follow a previously announced agreement with AstraZeneca for the firm to produce 100 million doses of its potential vaccine being developed in partnership with the University of Oxford.

Britain also said on Monday it had secured treatments containing COVID-19-neutralizing antibodies from AstraZeneca to protect people who can't be vaccinated.

Britain has officially reported more than 294,000 confirmed cases and over 45,000 deaths.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe will in the coming weeks conduct mass COVID-19 tests targeting 100,000 people as local community transmission surges, state media reported on Monday.

Zimbabwe reported 133 new cases on Sunday, 116 of which were of local community transmission. The other 17 cases involved citizens who returned from South Africa. The new cases pushed the country's tally to 1,611, of which 791 were local infections and the rest of the 820 imported.

Local transmissions have gone up drastically and are now just less than the number of imported infections.Apparently, most of the traceable local transmissions were detected in the workplace but health officials are also concerned about those that were untraceable.

In addition, authorities are also concerned over the fact that some COVID-19 cases were only identified during post mortems.

Meanwhile, recoveries rose to 472 after 30 more people recovered, leaving Zimbabwe with 1,114 active cases and 25 deaths.

Georgia 

Georgia confirmed 11 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking its total to 1,039, the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) said.

Four of the 11 new cases are imported ones, while the rest are close contacts of the infected, said the NCDC.

As of Monday, 900 of the 1,039 patients have recovered, while 15 others have died, the NCDC said.

Belarus 

Belarus reported 118 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking its total to 66,213, according to the country's health ministry.

There have been 86 new recoveries in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 58,290, the ministry added.

So far, 503 people have died of the disease in the country, including four over the past 24 hours, it said.