A couple walk across Westminster Bridge as the sun sets beside the Palace of Westminster, home to the Houses of Parliament in London on August 31, 2020, on the eve of MPs return to the UK parliament. (TOLGA AKMEN / AFP)

MEXICO CITY / LONDON / RIO DE JANEIRO / OTTAWA / MADRID / PARIS / DUBLIN / MOSCOW / BERLIN / MINSK / KAMPALA- Britain’s government will launch a media campaign this week to urge people to return to their workplaces, ramping up Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s calls to get the economy back up to speed after its hammering during the coronavirus lockdown.

Data has shown only 17 percent of workers in British cities had returned to their workplaces by early August, and one of the country’s business leaders said last week that big urban centers looked like ghost towns

Data has shown only 17 percent of workers in British cities had returned to their workplaces by early August, and one of the country’s business leaders said last week that big urban centers looked like ghost towns.

“The next stage we’ll look at is specifically the guidance on how to get back to work safely and we expect to see that later this week,” Johnson’s spokesman said, commenting on the government’s ongoing public information campaign.

Johnson’s message is that returning to work will help stimulate the economy, the spokesman said.

The government is hoping that the reopening of schools, which began in England this week, will help parents to get back to their workplaces after working from home since March in many cases.

Some 4.6 million working households in Britain have children under the age of 16. If all of these households had to make changes to their working arrangements to provide childcare, that would have affected one in seven workers in the UK.

Britain’s economic output shrank by more than 20 percent in the April-June period, bigger than all other large industrialized nations and its recovery has been moderate by comparison.

Many economists fear a sharp rise in unemployment as the government winds down its huge job retention scheme which is due to expire by the end of October.

The UK recorded 1,406 daily confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to government data published on Monday, down from 1,715 a day earlier and pushing the tally to 335,873. 

Two people died within 28 days of testing positive for the disease, the daily statistics release said, bringing the total death toll under that measure to 41,501.

Global toll

Global COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday surpassed 850,000 while the global tally topped 25.4 million, 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 COVID-19 cases across the African continent has risen to 1,245,230 while the death toll reached 29,589.

Belarus

Belarus reported 119 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, taking its total to 71,962, according to the country's health ministry.

There have been 138 new recoveries in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 70,606, the ministry added.

So far, 686 people have died of the disease in the country, including five over the past 24 hours, it said.

As of Tuesday, close to 1,535,000 tests for the virus had been conducted across the country, including 2,673 over the past 24 hours, according to official figures.

Brazil

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday extended until the end of the year emergency payments to help low-income Brazilians weather the economic fallout from the pandemic, a program that has boosted his popularity.

The stipend, for poor and informal sector workers who have been hard hit by the coronavirus crisis, will be halved to 300 reais (US$55.63) a month, Bolsonaro told reporters in the capital Brasilia

The stipend, for poor and informal sector workers who have been hard hit by the coronavirus crisis, will be halved to 300 reais (US$55.63) a month, Bolsonaro told reporters in the capital Brasilia.

The assistance, which started in April, had previously been set at 600 reais and was costing the treasury 50 billion reais each month, leading to friction with Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, who is trying to contain a huge budget deficit.

Recent opinion polls show that the payments have helped raise the right-wing president’s popularity, even in the poorer northeastern region of the country, once a stronghold of the left.

Bolsonaro, who has consistently downplayed the severity of the coronavirus outbreak, said on Monday that nobody will be forced to have the vaccine against the pandemic once it is developed.

The comments come after the government earmarked millions of dollars for the purchase and future production of vaccinations as Brazil suffers the second worst outbreak of the pandemic outside the United States.

Brazil has become a hot spot in recent months, with 3,908,272 confirmed cases and 121,381 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

On Monday, the Health Ministry reported 45,961 fresh infections and 553 more deaths in the past 24 hours.

Bolsonaro, who recently recovered from the coronavirus, has downplayed its importance, calling it a "small flu". Despite this, his government earmarked 1.9 billion reais (US$346 million) in early August in funding to buy 100 million doses of the vaccine candidate being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca PLC and to eventually produce it in Brazil.

The Sao Paulo state government is also working on a potential vaccine with China's Sinovac Biotech. Brazil hopes distribution of doses of either vaccine can begin at the start of next year.

Bolsonaro's acting Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, an Army general, was appointed on Friday a veterinarian to lead Brazil's vaccination program.

Canada

Canada reached an agreement in principle on Monday with both Novavax Inc and Johnson & Johnson for millions of doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccines, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

Novavax has agreed to supply up to 76 million doses of its experimental vaccine, while Johnson & Johnson will supply up to 38 million doses of its vaccine candidate.

Novavax has agreed to supply up to 76 million doses of its experimental vaccine to Canada, while Johnson & Johnson will supply up to 38 million doses of its vaccine candidate

The two agreements follow separate deals with Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc announced weeks ago, and are the latest example of countries rushing to secure access to vaccines.

Canada is also in “the final stages of negotiations” to secure AstraZeneca’s potential vaccine and is in talks to secure more doses of the Pfizer vaccine candidate, Procurement Minister Anita Anand said.

Canada has a population of about 38 million, and the four vaccine agreements signed so far “give Canada at least 88 million doses with options to obtain tens of millions more,” Trudeau said when he announced the deals in Montreal.

Trudeau also said the government will invest C$126 million (US$96.7 million) over two years to build a biomanufacturing facility at the Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre in Montreal capable of producing up to 2 million doses of a vaccine per month by next year.

Separately, Canada extended to the end of October a program to provide loans of up to C$40,000, a quarter of which is forgivable, to small businesses struggling amid the pandemic. It had been due to expire on Monday.

Canada has so far reported 130,918 confirmed cases and 9,173 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Chile

Chile on Monday announced that a total of 411,726 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 11,289 deaths had been reported in the country.

According to the Ministry of Health, 1,753 new cases  and 45 more deaths were registered in the past 24 hours.

A total of 383,879 people had recovered from the disease while 16,558 confirmed cases are considered still active, according to the authorities.

Eight small towns, or communes, within the capital Santiago and the Metropolitan Area on Monday began the process of emerging from lockdown.

Ecuador

Ecuador on Monday reported that the country has recorded a total of 113,767 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 6,556 deaths.

According to the Ministry of Public Health, in the past 24 hours, tests detected 119 new cases of infection and one more patient died.

The actual death toll is likely more than 10,000 as another 3,741 deaths are suspected of having been caused by COVID-19 but have not been verified.

Egypt

Egypt confirmed on Monday 212 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally in the country to 98,939, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Deaths rose by 22 to 5,421 while recoveries increased by 809 to 72,929, according to the statement.

France

French drugmaker Sanofi said on Tuesday that its rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara - which it produces with partner Regeneron - had failed as a possible COVID-19 treatment and would be dropped for studies in this field.

Sanofi and Regeneron do not anticipate conducting further clinical studies for Kevzara in COVID-19, Sanofi added, after the latest set of trials in patients across the world showed adverse effects. Previous trials had shown that the drug did not help patients with less severe COVID-19, the companies had said in July.

People queue up at a temporary screening center to take COVID-19 tests in front of the city hall in Paris, France, Aug 31, 2020. (AURELIEN MORISSARD / XINHUA)

France's new COVID-19 infections surged by almost 50 percent in August, which recorded the highest monthly tally since the beginning of the outbreak earlier this year, while hospitalizations for the disease seem to be creeping up again.

The country's health authorities reported 3,082 additional cases over the past 24 hours, pushing the cumulative total to 281,025.

Another 29 deaths from COVID-19 were reported on Monday, meaning the average daily fatalities fell to a new low of 12 in August, versus 14 in July and of peak of 695 in April.

The number of people in hospital for the disease has declined by 14 percent in August versus July, but that figure has risen for the second day running on Monday, at 4,582, after going down for almost two weeks. And the number of people in intensive care units was up for a fourth dayin a row, at 409. 

Germany

The German government sees the economy rebounding quickly from the coronavirus shock, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Tuesday, adding that he did not expect authorities to impose another round of lockdown measures like in March and April.

"Overall, we can say that at least for now, we are dealing with a V-shaped development," Altmaier told reporters when presenting the government's updated growth forecasts.

Altmaier said the government revised upward its 2020 economic forecast to a decline of 5.8 percent from a previously expected slump of 6.3 percent and revised downward its 2021 forecast to an expansion of 4.4 percent from its previous estimate of 5.2 percent.

Germany's coronavirus cases increased by 1,218 to 243,599, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday.

The reported death toll rose by 4 to 9,302, the tally showed.

Ghana

Ghanaian aviation authorities announced Monday a raft of measures to ensure the safety of passengers and prevent the importation of COVID-19 ahead of the reopening of its major airport.

Minister for Aviation Joseph Kofi Adda said at a press briefing in its capital airport that apart from providing a negative COVID-19 test result from a certified laboratory in their countries of origin, passengers shall also undergo mandatory COVID-19 tests upon arrival in Ghana.

Ghana's infection tally stood at 44,298 on Monday, with 42,963 recoveries, 276 deaths, and 1,059 active cases.

Hungary

Hungary decided to let tourists from its three East European neighbours, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia enter the country with a fresh negative coronavirus test, it said late on Monday, just as a lockdown on its borders took effect.

Last week Hungary said it would close its borders to foreigners from Tuesday to curb a rise in coronavirus cases. Returning Hungarian citizens can leave a 14-day quarantine only if they provide two negative COVID tests.

As of Monday, Hungary had reported 6,139 coronavirus cases with 615 deaths. The number of new cases has surged in recent days, just as Hungary prepared to start the school year.

Passengers wearing face masks arrive at Budapest Airport in Hungary, Aug 31, 2020, one day before border controls are reimposed in the country. (ATTILA VOLGYI / XINHUA)

Ireland

A significant tightening of COVID-19 restrictions in Ireland two weeks ago appears to be working, a senior health official said on Tuesday.

"It's early to say, but we would be optimistic. We have had a stable daily case count now since Aug 19," Philip Nolan, the chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, told national broadcaster RTE.

Nolan's remarks came a day after Ireland lifted an extended local lockdown in the eastern county of Kildare ahead of schedule, but the whole country remains under some of Europe's strictest COVID-19 restrictions.

Ireland closed or limited business on Aug 7 in three of its 26 counties - Kildare, Laois and Offaly - and their residents were barred from travelling outside their county.  Ten days later, an uptick in coronavirus cases prompted a significant tightening in measures nationwide.

The local lockdowns had been due to run until Sept 6, but Prime Minister Micheal Martin said the numbers in Kildare were now similar to the rest of the country. He also urged vigilance ahead of a review of the nationwide restrictions on Sept 13.

Ireland has reported 28,811 confirmed cases, with 1,777 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Italy

The number of new coronavirus cases has again fallen under the 1,000 mark as Italy reported a total of 996 fresh infections over the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health reported on Monday.

Italy had seen new cases rise above 1,000 from Aug 26 to Aug 30.

Meanwhile, the ministry reported six more deaths.

The latest data pushed the total number of infections, including recoveries and fatalities, to 269,214.

Also on Monday, a technical institute in the city of Verbania, in the northern Piedmont region, said that it has shut down after a teacher tested positive for the coronavirus. Six students have been quarantined.

Kenya

The WHO on Monday cautioned Kenya against relaxing measures aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The WHO said the country had registered fewer laboratory tests in the last three weeks of decline. It said the testing strategy was not adhered to strictly during the period in that low-risk groups were tested instead of the high-risk groups, which include health workers and truck drivers.

The WHO also noted that there had been minimal contact tracing being carried out recently.

The WHO’s remarks came as the Ministry of Health confirmed 144 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 34,201.

Recoveries increased by 205 to 19,893 while the death toll rose by three to 577, according to Mutahi Kagwe, the ministry's cabinet secretary.

Kenya has so far tested 454,406 samples since the disease was reported in the country.

Libya

The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Monday reported 543 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 13,966.

Five more deaths were reported, raising the death toll to 237, while another 49 patients had recovered, taking the number of recoveries to 1,459, the center said.

Mexico

Mexico's Health Ministry on Monday reported 3,719 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 256 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 599,560 cases and 64,414 deaths.

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

Morocco

Morocco registered 1,191 new COVID-19 cases and 30 additional deaths on Monday, taking the country’s infection tally to 62,590 and the death toll to 1,141.

Poland

Poland is banning from Wednesday direct flights from 44 countries including Spain, Israel and Romania in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the Central European country, the government said on Tuesday.

The United States, Malta, Montenegro, Mexico, Brasil, Argentina and India are also on the list of countries.

Poles are, however, allowed to fly to and from any country they want if they choose indirect flights through countries that are not on the list, such as Germany.

Poland, a country of 38 million, has officially registered 67,922 COVID-19 infections and more than 2,000 people have died from the virus. On Tuesday 550 new infections were registered, according to Health Ministry data.

Russia

Russia's coronavirus case tally passed the 1 million mark on Tuesday as schools and educational institutions reopened across the world's largest country with new mandatory safety precautions in place.

The coronavirus crisis centre said 4,729 new infections were reported, taking the tally to 1,000,048. Another 123 deaths had been confirmed in the last 24 hours, taking the official death toll to 17,299, the centre said.

President Vladimir Putin, in a nationwide TV address, told school children and students to observe virus safety rules.

It is mandatory for teachers to wear masks in schools in Moscow, while school children in the capital are exempted. 

Traditional ceremonies at the start of the school year were cancelled on Tuesday and the use of different classrooms will be limited to reduce infection risks.

People wearing face masks wait for their turn to be called for a COVID-19 test in Barcelona, Spain, Aug 31, 2020. (EMILIO MORENATTI / AP)

Spain

Spain has registered more than 23,000 new COVID-19 cases since Friday, health emergency chief Fernando Simon said at a news conference on Monday, suggesting the infection rate had declined slightly from an Aug 21 peak.

Health ministry data showed 2,489 new cases were diagnosed in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to 462,858.

Five people died in the past day, bringing Spain's death toll to 29,094, ministry data showed.

Health Minister Salvador Illa said that the situation is not comparable to the pandemic's first peak in March and April, noting hospitals now have greater capacity. He said that nothing can be ruled out but it would be unlikely Spain would need to close schools again or impose a new state of emergency to try to tackle the virus.

With the new academic year approaching and Spain registering the highest number of cases in western Europe, officials sought to assuage fears that schools could turn into vectors for mass contagion.

"If the appropriate safety measures are applied, the probability of transmission is negligible," Simon said.

ALSO READ: EU offers 400m euros to WHO-led COVID-19 vaccine initiative

Sweden

Sweden is ready to impose stricter rules on local communities in the event of sudden Covid-19 outbreaks, but said it remains committed to its broader national strategy of limited restrictions on movement.

“To deal with the local outbreaks that we fear may happen, regional authorities could issue stricter recommendations if needed,” Johan Carlson, the director-general of Sweden’s Public Health Agency, said on Tuesday.

Sweden opted for a softer lockdown than most other countries to fight the pandemic, which coincided with a higher death rate early on during the crisis. But there are now signs the virus is slowly being brought under control in Sweden, as the number of daily new infections declines.

Social Minister Lena Hallengren said the pandemic is “a crisis that we will live with for a long time,” at a press conference in Stockholm on Tuesday. The focus is to drive down infection rates and to “beat down any new outbreaks.”

Guidelines to tackle local outbreaks might include stricter work-from-home instructions and a return to online education for older school kids, Carlson said. People may also be asked to avoid public transport, while limits on how many people are allowed to gather in one place could be tightened.

The agency has yet to provide clear guidance on face masks, and Sweden continues to be an outlier in its decision not to recommend their use.

Sweden has so far reported 84,379 confirmed cases and 5,808 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Also on Monday, the Umea University in northern Sweden launched a mass testing experiment with the aim of finding out whether on-campus teaching increases the COVID-19 contamination rate.

Uganda

Uganda's ministry of health on Tuesday reported 65 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the east African country to 3,037 since March 21.

The ministry in a statement issued here said additionally, two foreign cargo truck drivers -- a Kenyan and Congolese who tested positive for COVID-19 at Uganda's common border points of entry were not permitted into the country.

The country has also registered a total of 1,489 recoveries and 32 deaths since the index case was reported on March 21.

Ukraine

The number of new coronavirus cases in Ukraine will continue to rise in September and could reach 3,000 a day by the end of this month, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on Tuesday.

Ukraine reported 2,088 cases on Tuesday and 2,141 on Monday.

Last week the daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases jumped to a record 2,481.

The country has reported a total of 123,303 infections and 2,605 deaths from the virus.

US

US coronavirus cases topped 6 million while the death toll neared 850,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

While outbreaks continue accelerating on campuses, Arizona, California and Florida showed daily new infections shrinking. 

Only 6 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the US had COVID-19 as the only cause mentioned, suggesting that 94 percent of patients who died from the disease also had other underlying conditions, according to a new report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New Jersey and California on Monday took a big step toward resumption of their pre-pandemic economies by allowing restaurants to begin limited indoor dining.

Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is canceling contracts for ventilators with three companies, including a US$650 million deal signed in April with Royal Philips NV.

Separately, AstraZeneca Plc has begun a large-scale human trial of its coronavirus vaccine in the US, the company said in a statement, with plans to enroll as many as 30,000 adults in testing.

AstraZeneca has also expanded its previous agreement with Oxford Biomedica to mass-produce the British drugmaker's COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Oxford Biomedica said on Tuesday AstraZeneca would give it 15 million pounds (US$20 million) upfront to reserve manufacturing capacity at its plant and that it could get an additional 35 million pounds plus other costs until the end of 2021 under the new 18-month deal.

READ MORE: US orders up to 600m doses of Pfizer, BioNTech vaccine

WHO

Europe can live with COVID-19 without a vaccine by managing outbreaks with localized lockdowns, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director for the region said on Tuesday, adding he did not expect a return to full national-level restrictions.

“The day we are going to conquer the pandemic is not necessarily the vaccine. It is when we learn to live with the pandemic, and that can be tomorrow,” Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, told Sky News.

Asked if he expected wholesale lockdowns in the coming months to avoid a second wave of infections, he said: “No.”

“I’m optimistic, but we cannot exclude localized lockdowns,” he said.

On Monday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization wanted to see children returning to school and people returning to the workplace, but at the same time, no country can just pretend the pandemic is over.

Ghebreyesus said at a virtual press conference that if countries are serious about opening up, they must be serious about suppressing transmission and saving lives.

"Opening up without having control is a recipe for disaster," Tedros said.

Decisions about how and when to allow gatherings of people must be taken with a risk-based approach and in the local context, the WHO chief said.

Meanwhile, the WHO said that the emergency authorization of COVID-19 vaccines requires a "great deal of seriousness and reflection".