This Feb 19, 2020 photo taken in Berlaymont building, headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels shows a lecturn used by the head of the European Commission. (KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP)

MEXICO CITY / LONDON / BOGOTA / RIO DE JANEIRO / PARIS / HELSINKI / ACCRA / ABUJA / BERLIN / LIMA / CAIRO / BRUSSELS / BUENOS AIRES / GENEVA - The European Commission said it would contribute 400 million euros (US$476 million) to an initiative led by the World Health Organization to buy COVID-19 vaccines, but did not clarify whether EU states would acquire shots through the WHO scheme.

The initiative, dubbed COVAX, aims to purchase for all countries in the world 2 billion doses of potential COVID-19 shots from several vaccine makers by the end of 2021.

The EU financial support will be provided through guarantees, the Commission said. A spokeswoman for the EU executive did not clarify how these guarantees would be offered and why they were preferred to direct funding in cash.

“Today, the Commission is announcing a 400 million euro contribution to COVAX for working together in purchasing future vaccines to the benefit of low and middle income countries,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday.

The EU Commission is negotiating advance purchases of COVID-19 vaccines with several drugmakers on behalf of the 27 EU states and has said in past weeks EU governments cannot buy vaccines through parallel procurement schemes.

Asked whether its guidance to EU states not to buy vaccines through COVAX was now dropped, a commission spokeswoman declined to elaborate.

“The detailed terms and conditions for the EU’s participation and contribution will be worked out in the coming days and weeks,” the Commission said.

The Commission added in a statement that it was ready, together with EU states, “to put expertise and resources at work within COVAX to accelerate and scale-up development and manufacturing of a global supply of vaccines for citizens across the world, in poor and rich countries.”

Critics have said that by buying vaccines exclusively through an EU scheme, the Commission was effectively undermining the WHO-led initiative.

The Commission said it was committed to donating to developing countries some of the vaccines it buys through its procurement scheme.

Global tally

Coronavirus cases worldwide on Monday surpassed 25.2 million while the global death toll topped 846,000, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

Africa tally

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Monday said that the number of positive COVID-19 cases across the African continent has risen to 1,245,230.

The Africa CDC, which noted that only five African countries account for about 70 percent of all COVID-19 infections in the continent, also stressed that the death toll from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic rose to 29,589 on Monday.

Some 975, 643 people who were infected with COVID-19 had recovered across the continent so far, it said.

Amid the rapid spread of the virus across the continent, South Africa alone accounts for about 50 percent of all COVID-19 infections in the continent, followed by Egypt which has eight percent of all COVID-19 infections in the continent, the Africa CDC said.

The continental disease control and prevention agency said that South Africa has so far reported 625, 056 cases and 14,028 deaths as of Monday.

Egypt is the second most COVID-19 affected country with 98,727 positive cases and 5,399 COVID-19 related deaths, it was noted.

Morocco, which has so far reported 61, 399 positive cases and 1,111 deaths, comes third with about five percent of all COVID-19 infections in the continent, while Nigeria and Ethiopia round the top of five list.         

According to the Africa CDC, the southern Africa region is the most affected area in terms of confirmed cases, followed by northern Africa and western Africa regions.

Algeria

Algeria's COVID-19 deaths has surpassed 1,500, according to Algerian Health Ministry.

Algeria on Sunday reported 364 new COVID-19 cases and 10 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of infections to 44,146 and the death toll to 1,501 in the country.

Argentina

Argentina's health ministry said Sunday that a total of 408,426 COVID-19 cases, including 8,457 deaths, had so far been reported nationwide.

The ministry said that 7,187 new cases and another 104 deaths were logged over the past 24 hours.

Of the new cases, 3,887 were confirmed in the province of Buenos Aires and 1,235 in the city of Buenos Aires.

Currently, 2,232 patients are being hospitalized for the disease in intensive care units while 294,007 people have recovered, said the ministry.

Belarus

Belarus reported 164 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases on Sunday, taking its tally to 71,687, according to the health ministry.

Another 245 patients had recovered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 70,452, the ministry added.

The death toll rose by five to 676, the ministry said.

Brazil

Brazil registered 366 additional coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours and 16,158 new cases, the Health Ministry said on Sunday evening.

The nation has now registered 120,828 deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus and 3,862,311 confirmed cases.

Sundays tend to have relatively low coronavirus numbers in Brazil because of delays in testing by the nation's state governments.

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A bus driver wears a face mask to curb the spread of COVID-19 as the digital sign on the front of the bus reminds passengers that masks are mandatory on public transit, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Aug 30, 2020. (DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP)

Canada

Canada has recorded a total of 127,673 cases of COVID-19, including 9,113 deaths, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada on Sunday.

With an almost 13 percent increase in the average daily case count to 425 cases being reported across Canada daily over the past week, the agency said it was keeping a very watchful eye for any increases in COVID-19 severity, such as increased hospitalizations, critical care admissions and deaths. Nationally, these indicators remain low having leveled off following a sharp and steady decline after mid-May.

In the past two weeks, all of Canada's five most populous provinces -- Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba -- have all set or come close to new daily records for the highest number of new COVID-19 cases reported in each province.

Canada's new COVID-19 cases moved past the 5,000 mark for the first time in nearly three weeks, according to CTV News records.

There are fears that the spread of the virus could be exacerbated by the return of children to classrooms, which is already underway in some parts of the country and will have taken place at most schools within two weeks. Already in Quebec, approximately 20 teachers have been ordered to isolate after two educators at one high school tested positive for COVID-19.

Chile

Chile announced on Sunday that a total of 409,974 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in the country while 11,244 people had died from the disease.

According to the Health Ministry, in the previous 24 hours, 1,966 new cases of infection and 63 more deaths were recorded.

A total of 382,584 patients had recovered while there were still 16,146 active cases.

Colombia

Coronavirus cases in Colombia surpassed 600,000 on Sunday as deaths from the virus approach 19,400, ahead of the end to more than five months of  lockdown.

The Andean country has 607,938 confirmed cases of the virus, according to the health ministry, with 19,364 reported deaths. Active cases number 136,702.

Intensive care units in Bogota are at about 73 percent capacity, according to local health authorities. The capital is home to more than a third of Colombia's cases.

President Ivan Duque declared a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the virus in late March. The measure will end on Monday when the country begins a month-long "selective" quarantine.

Dominican Republic

Health authorities in the Dominican Republic reported on Sunday that the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has risen to 94,241, with 1,681 deaths.

The Ministry of Public Health said in a release that 509 new cases and eight more deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, a total of 66,776 patients had recovered, according to the ministry.

Ecuador

Ecuador reported 742 new COVID-19 infections and 18 more deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 113,648 and the death toll to 6,555, the Ministry of Public Health said on Sunday.

The actual death toll is likely closer to 10,000, as there were another 3,738 deaths that were recorded in the past six months were suspected of having been caused by COVID-19 but could not be verified, the ministry said.

On Sept 2, the capital city of Quito is due to reopen its two ground transportation terminals, but with 60 percent fewer trips available initially.

Ten days later, a nationwide state of emergency is set to expire, and the Constitutional Court has ruled it cannot be extended. The court called on the government "to gradually transition" to a new normality that can contain the outbreak.

Egypt

Egypt registered on Sunday 230 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 98,727, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

It was the fifth day that new cases exceeded 200 since Aug 1.

Meanwhile, 23 more patients died in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 5,399, while another 818 were cured and discharged from hospitals, raising the total recoveries to 72,120, according to the statement.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia's confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 51,122 after 1,468 new cases were confirmed on Sunday, the Ministry of Health said.

The ministry said in a statement that 23 more patients died during the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 793.

The number of recoveries increased by 266 to 18,382, according to the ministry.

People wearing face masks stroll at Trocadero plaza near the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, Aug 29, 2020. (KAMIL ZIHNIOGLU / AP)

France

The Paris local municipality said on Monday that it would look to make free COVID-19 testing available in all of the capital's 20 districts (arrondissements), as authorities battle against signs of a re-emergence of the virus in France.

The Paris mayor's office added in a statement that from Monday onwards, there would be three permanent laboratories set up to conduct free COVID-19 tests, as well as two other mobile laboratories that would go around the capital.

The announcement came a day after France reported 5,413 new coronavirus cases, slightly down from the 5,453 seen on Saturday.

The health ministry said the cumulative number of COVID-19 deaths rose to 30,606 from 30,602 reported on Saturday.

"In mainland France, the progression of the COVID-19 epidemic is exponential. The strong growth dynamics of transmission is very worrying." the ministry said in a statement.

Finland

Finland’s health authorities on Monday launched the country’s own and long-waited contact tracing smartphone app to combat the spread of COVID-19.

“Everyone of us can start using it while it’s fully voluntary ... and fully data secured. With it we can protect ourselves and our closest ones,” Kirsi Varhila, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health told a news conference.

Varhila said the application, based on Bluetooth technology, would not reveal anyone’s identity to other users but it would help trace unknown contacts that have remained long enough nearby a person who later tests positive for COVID-19.

Varhila said a second phase in the app’s development would follow, in order to make it compatible with similar apps in use in other European Union member countries.

In order to respect privacy, a user who gets a positive COVID-19 test result can choose whether or not they send an exposure alert to their earlier contacts and those who receive the alert will not know who the alert is coming from or where and when the exposure took place, the ministry said.

Users who receive an alert for exposure will not be revealed to authorities but should rather contact healthcare officials in order to get tested for COVID-19, it said.

The app, called “Corona Blinker” in Finnish, was developed by a private Finnish software company Solita, after it won a public bidding contest in June.

Germany

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 610 to 242,381, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Monday.

The reported death toll rose by three to 9,298, the tally showed.

Ghana

Ghana will reopen air borders to international travel as of Sept 1 after closing them in March to limit the spread of the coronavirus, President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a speech to the nation on Sunday.

Land and sea borders will remain closed, he said.

Meanwhile, second-year students in junior and senior high schools across the country will resume school on Oct 5, the president said. All nursery, kindergarten, primary, and first-year junior high school pupils will continue to remain at home until January 2021, he added.

Ghana has so far reported 44,205 confirmed cases and 276 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Greece

Greece's confirmed COVID-19 infections have exceeded 10,000, authorities reported on Sunday.

The National Organization for Public Health recorded 157 new cases within the past 24 hours, raising the national tally to 10,134.

Among the new infections, only 41 were detected during checks on travelers entering Greece, according to health authorities. 

Meanwhile, two more deaths were also reported on Sunday, taking the death toll to 262.

Honduras

Honduras' tally of COVID-19 cases is approaching 60,000 and deaths are reaching 2,000, the National Risk Management System (Sinager) said on Sunday.

So far, the country has reported a total of 59,645 COVID-19 confirmed cases, according to the Sinager.

In the past 24 hours, 15 more patients died, raising the death toll to 1,842, while another 80 patients had recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 10,156.

Tourists, some wearing a face mask, walk by the Colosseum monument in Rome on Aug 22, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (VINCENZO PINTO / AFP)

Italy

Italian companies slashed investment and consumers cut back on spending during the coronavirus lockdown in the second quarter, sending the economy into a record contraction.

Figures from statistics office Istat showed the economy shrank 12.8 percent in the three months, slightly worse than an initial estimate. 

Household spending fell 11.3 percent in the period, and exports dropped 26.4 percent. Investment plunged 14.9 percent, with transport investment down about 20 percent. 

A strict national lockdown in Italy, the original European epicenter of the virus, took a heavy toll on the economy. The government forecasts that GDP will contract 8 percent in 2020, a projection that looks optimistic next to the 10 percent predicted by economists, and the European Commission’s 11 percent.

There’s also been a huge fallout on Italy’s public finances after the government ramped up health and stimulus spending to counter the pandemic. Debt was already projected to exceed 150 percent of GDP this year even before the latest tranche of spending. The government has so far approved about 100 billion euros (US$119 billion) in stimulus to try to save the economy.

Italy has so far reported 268,218 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 35,477 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Mexico

Mexico's health ministry on Sunday reported 4,129 new confirmed novel coronavirus infections and 339 additional fatalities, bringing the total number to 595,841 cases and 64,158 deaths.

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

Morocco

Morocco registered 1,343 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, raising the tally of infections in the North African country to 61,399, the health ministry said.

Total recoveries increased by 1,737 to 46,355 while the death toll rose to 1,111 after 33 more fatalities were recorded in the last 24 hours, said Mouad Mrabet, coordinator of the Moroccan Center for Public Health Operations at the Ministry of Health, in a press briefing.

Nigeria

Schools will reopen in Nigeria's commercial hub of Lagos next month as part of plans to revive the economy as COVID-19 cases decline, the state governor said on Saturday.

Lagos, the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria, plans to reopen colleges on Sept 14, and primary and secondary school schools on Sept 21, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said.

The Lagos governor said restaurants, social clubs and recreational centers would also be allowed to reopen as long as they followed safety rules.

Nigeria has reported 53,727 infections in total - including 18,104 in Lagos - and 1,011 deaths.

Peru

Peru's President Martin Vizcarra on Sunday urged the country's 32 million people not to lower their guard in the fight against the COVID-19, which has overwhelmed the national healthcare system.

According to Vizcarra, the outbreak worsened because of a lack of compliance with social distancing and lockdown measures, including a curfew.

The Peruvian government extended a state of emergency in force since March 16 for a further 90 days due to a rise in infections in the capital Lima and other parts of the country.

So far, Peru has reported nearly 640,000 confirmed cases and more than 28,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Russia

Russia reported 4,993 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, bringing its nationwide tally to 995,319, the fourth largest caseload in the world.

Russia's coronavirus taskforce said 83 people had died over the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 17,176.

Sweden

One of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s six special envoys on COVID-19 has highlighted Sweden’s virus response as a model that other countries should be emulating in the long run.

Dr. David Nabarro, speaking in a radio interview with Magic Talk in New Zealand, said the key to a sustainable coronavirus strategy is trust, and pointed to Sweden as a case in point. The Nordic nation imposed far fewer restrictions on movement than others, and instead relied on Swedes to act responsibly and embrace the guidelines laid out by the country’s health authorities.

“In Sweden, the government was able to trust the public and the public was able to trust the government,” Nabarro said.

To be sure, Sweden’s COVID-19 death rate is considerably higher than in many other countries, at 57 per 100,000. But the pace of new infections and deaths has slowed markedly since the end of June.

In total, Sweden has reported 83,958 confirmed cases and 5,821 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Nabarro described a lockdown as “a blunt instrument” that “really bites into the livelihoods of everybody, particularly poorer people and small businesses.”

In response to the envoy’s remarks, the director-general of Sweden’s public health agency, Johan Carlson, said in an interview with newspaper Svenska Dagbladet: “We are one of the few countries with a limited spread of infection, unlike several countries in Europe where the infection is returning sharply.”

Uganda

Uganda's national taskforce in charge of spearheading the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is to review the reopening of schools after they were closed back in March following the outbreak of the virus in the country, a top government official said on Sunday.

Judith Nabakooba, minister of ICT and national guidance, told reporters that President Yoweri Museveni had instructed the taskforce to review the possibility of a phased reopening of schools, starting with candidate classes and clinical medical students.

The taskforce is also supposed to review the status of the remaining sectors that are still closed like tourism, reopening of Entebbe International Airport among others.

Nabakooba said the team is supposed to report back to the president early next week and thereafter he will address the country on the next step forward.

Uganda has so far reported 2,928 confirmed cases, with 30 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

People, some wearing protective face coverings, line the towpath as dancers from The Royal Ballet perform beside the Regent's Canal in London on Aug 30, 2020, one of three performances they put on daily on weekends to experience performing in front of a live socially-distanced audience. (ISABEL INFANTES / AFP)

UK

The United Kingdom recorded 1,715 daily confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to government data on Sunday, the highest level since June 4 and well above the previous seven-day average of 1,164. 

The additions brought the overall tally to 334,467, according to the data.

One person had died within 28 days of testing positive for the disease, it said.

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Meanwhile, passengers who were on a flight from Zante on the Greek island of Zakynthos to Cardiff in Wales last week have been told to isolate after it was identified as the source of at least seven confirmed cases, Public Health Wales said on Sunday.

US

US cases of the novel coronavirus approached 6 million on Sunday amid outbreaks on college campuses. 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday said his state was sending a "SWAT team" to a State University of New York (SUNY) campus in Oneonta in upstate New York to contain a COVID-19 outbreak. Fall classes, which started last week at the college, were suspended for two weeks after more than 100 people tested positive for the virus, about 3 percent of the total student and faculty population, SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras said.

Across the Midwest, infections have also risen after an annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota drew more than 365,000 people from across the country from Aug 7 to 16. The South Dakota health department said 88 cases have been traced to the rally.

Many health officials and at least 33 states have rejected the new COVID-19 testing guidance issued by the Trump administration last week that said those exposed to the virus and without symptoms may not need testing.

The United States also has the most deaths in the world at over 183,000, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.

WHO

More than 90 percent of countries have seen ordinary health services disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with major gains in medical care attained over decades vulnerable to being wiped out in a short period, a World Health Organization survey showed.

The Geneva-based body has frequently warned about other life-saving programs being impacted by the pandemic and has sent countries mitigation advice, but the survey yielded the first WHO data so far on the scale of disruptions.

“The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on essential health services is a source of great concern,” said a report on the study released on Monday. “Major health gains achieved over the past two decades can be wiped out in a short period of time...”

The survey includes responses from between May and July from more than 100 countries. Among the most affected services were routine immunizations (70 percent), family planning (68 percent) and cancer diagnosis and treatment (55 percent), while emergency services were disturbed in almost a quarter of responding countries.

The Eastern Mediterranean Region, which includes Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen, was most affected followed by the African and Southeast Asian regions, it showed. The Americas was not part of the survey.

Since COVID-19 cases were first identified in December last year, the virus is thought to have killed nearly 850,000 people, the latest Reuters tally showed.

Researchers think that non-COVID deaths have also increased in some places due partly to health service disruptions, although these may be harder to calculate.

The WHO survey said it was “reasonable to anticipate that even a modest disruption in essential health services could lead to an increase in morbidity and mortality from causes other than COVID-19 in the short to medium and long-term.” Further research was needed.

It also warned that the disruptions could be felt even after the pandemic ends. “The impact may be felt beyond the immediate pandemic as, in trying to catch up on services, countries may find that resources are overwhelmed.”