Coronavirus Updates

123,783 new cases world wide lower than the previous day.

3,258 more deaths lower than previous 24 hours

USA (19,920), Brazil (17,086), & India (11,382) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases.

Brazil (598), Mexico (424) & USA (326) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

As of now...

Coronavirus Cases:
8,108,641

Deaths:
438,583

Recovered:
4,188,491

124,600 new cases world wide higher than the previous day.

3,415 more deaths higher than previous 24 hours

Brazil (23,674), USA (20,722), & India (10,243) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases.

Brazil (729), USA (425) & India (395) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

As of now.

Coronavirus Cases:
8,263,724

Deaths:
446,122

Recovered:
4,308,798

142,557 new cases world wide higher than the previous day and renewing the highest record per day once more !

6,592 more deaths significantly higher than previous 24 hours and surpassed 6,000 mark after a long time !

Brazil (37,278), USA (25,450), & India (11,135) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases.

India (2006), Brazil (1,338) & USA (849) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours. India's situation worse off alarmingly posing definite threats to Sri Lanka. Authorities to be extra cautious now.

Sri Lanka COVID positive number closes in on the two thousand mark as repatriation flights continue

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s total number of people diagnosed with COVID 19 nudged closer to the two-thousand mark last night as more returnees to the country from overseas tested positive for the virus the Government’s Information Department said.

Patients diagnosed positive among returning Sri Lankans from the Maldives, Bangladesh and Kuwait and two more from the Navy cluster made up the 16 new patients bringing the total up to 1,905 on Monday night.

The end of May saw the highest number of COVID 19 cases being reported as two active clusters of patients produced large numbers of infected persons.

They are the Navy cluster – confined in most part to the huge Welisara Navy Camp – which has up to now produced 927 patients and the Kuwait cluster which saw 536 returnees who have been detected as positive.

The number from the Navy includes family members who were infected when personnel were permitted to travel to their homes outside of the Colombo District.

The epi-curve, the graph that tracks the number infected each day maintained by the Epidemiological Unit of the Department of Health Services has seen a gentle dip downwards in June.

The Opposition yesterday June 15, accused the government of stopping flights bringing back migrant workers to keep the number of infected persons down.

The Cabinet Spokesman Minister Bandula Gunewardena has said that the government is going slow on the repatriation as it does not want to place any greater stress on the Sri Lankan Health Service particularly the number of hospital beds

However, repatriation flights are continuing with around 200 passengers stuck in Pakistan brought back last night.

More flights from the UK, the Maldives and the Middle-East are expected.


Thousands of Sri Lankan migrant workers are stranded in Kuwait and other places in the Middle-East, many unable to travel as their documents have been seized by the authorities or held back by job agents or employers.

Some are staying in places provided by the job agencies or in deportation camps.

The situation in the Maldives is also dire as there are nearly 7,000 Sri Lankan workers stuck in the Male and Greater Male area where the government has declared a Red Alert and urged foreign governments to take their citizens back

The Sri Lankan authorities dispatched parcels of food, sanitary items and essential medicines to these people late last week and the distribution of these parcels to families is now underway.

Meanwhile, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered police to return vehicles seized during the quarantine curfew to their owners.

Many residents have complained that they have observed police officers driving around in their cars, some of them upper range SUVs. (Colombo, June 16, 2020)

Steroid 'breakthrough' raises virus hopes

As on now...


Coronavirus Cases:
8,405,632

Deaths:
451,383

Recovered:
4,415,785

141,872 new cases world wide marginally lower than the previous day and second consecutive day of over 140,000!

5,264 more deaths lower than previous 24 hours.

Brazil (31,475), USA (26,071), & India (13,103) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases.

Brazil (1,209), USA (809) & Mexico (730), were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

As of now...

Coronavirus Cases:
8,578,052

Deaths:
456,284

Recovered:
4,530,261

140,528 new cases world wide marginally lower than the previous day and third consecutive day of over 140,000 cases!

5,123 more deaths lower than previous 24 hours.

USA (27,924), Brazil (23,050), & India (13,827) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases. Brazil's total cases nearing 1mn mark and India recording ever increasing numbers rising threats to Sri Lanka as well.

Brazil (1,204),Mexico (770) & USA (747) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

As of now...

Coronavirus Cases:
8,757,750

Deaths:
462,519

Recovered:
4,625,449

181,005 new cases world wide significantly higher than the previous highest recorded per day and for the first time going beyond 180,000 mark !!!

5,066 more deaths similar to last 24 hours

Brazil (55,209), USA (33,539), Brazil & India (14,731) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases. Brazil is the first country to record more than 50,000 new infections per day and with the 55k reported last 24 hours their total count now surpass 1mn mark. USA's 33,539 also recorded as their highest per day reported so far and India also establish the same record yesterday!

Brazil (1,221), USA (719) & Mexico (667) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

As of now...

Coronavirus Cases:
8,915,866

Deaths:
466,728

Recovered:
4,738,608

156,923 new cases world wide lower than the total recorded yesterday.

4,428 more deaths lower than previous 24 hours

USA (33,388), Brazil (31,571) & India (15,915) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases. These three countries seems to be establishing new highs once again.

Brazil (968), Mexico (647) & USA (573) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

As of now...

Coronavirus Cases:
9,046,215

Deaths:
470,703

Recovered:
4,838,359

130,923 new cases world wide lower than the total recorded yesterday. With this, the overall count has gone pass 9mn.

3,338 more deaths lower than previous 24 hours

USA (26,079), Brazil (16,851) & India (15,183) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases.

Brazil (601), India (426) & Mexico (387) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

As of now...

Coronavirus Cases:
9,188,360

Deaths:
474,339

Recovered:
4,937,277

138,975 new cases world wide higher than the total recorded yesterday.

3,880 more deaths higher than previous 24 hours

USA (31,496), Brazil (24,358) & India (13,540) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases.

Mexico (1,044), Brazil (748), USA (363) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

As of now...

Coronavirus Cases:
9,355,106

Deaths:
479,819

Recovered:
5,041,846

162,994 new cases world wide higher than the total recorded yesterday.

5,465 more deaths higher than previous 24 hours

Brazil (40,131), USA (36,015) & India (15,665) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases.

Brazil (1,364), USA (863) & Mexico (759) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

Sri Lanka Coronavirus testing capacity upped 30-pct with ADB funded lab

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka has boosted its Coronavirus testing capacity 30 percent with a new lab build with emergency funding from the Asian Development Bank, the Manila-based lender said.

“The building, constructed within the hospital premises on hospital land, is equipped with PCR machines, consumables, pharmacological refrigerators and freezers, generator, reagents, and dedicated utilities such as water supply, electricity, and telecommunication,” ADB said.

“In addition, all other operational support, such as training, laboratory information system, technical assistance on troubleshooting, and a waste disposal system is also provided.”

Sri Lanka has contained the Coronavirus epidemic with aggressive Coronavirus quarantine and curfews, though there was a spike with around 900 cases from a Navy camp that got infected at a time when frontline workers were not tested which took the total over 1,900.

New cases are now coming from foreign returnees.

“Despite Sri Lanka’s well-established health system, the country was in urgent need of increasing its diagnostic capacity of the COVID-19 infection,” Secretary of Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services Dr. S. H. Munasinghe said.

“The Asian Development Bank responded without delay by providing the necessary funds to establish a PCR laboratory at the Colombo East Base Hospital.”

ADB provided 15 million US dollars from its Sri Lanka Health System Enhancement Project to tackle Coronavirus.

“We are glad to have contributed to the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka through this new laboratory complex, which will conduct investigations on high-risk patients in a conducive environment both for patients and the laboratory staff,” said ADB Country Director for Sri Lanka Chen Chen.

The Ministry of Highways and the Ministry of Power and Energy have contributed valuably through the construction of a wider and better access road to the laboratory, provision of materials during this difficult situation, and the establishment of a dedicated power line for the laboratory.”


Sri Lanka has conducted over 100,000 tests and also began community testing after the discovery of a large cluster in an under-served area of the capital during the period when community testing was not done, for reasons which are not clear.

Health officials in Sri Lanka initially did not conduct tests outside of a hospital setting saying the PCR test was a ‘diagnostic’ test, which had to have an ‘indication’ to use, despite the large portion of infected persons being asymptomatic.

Reports said up to 100,000 tests have since been conducted. (Colombo/June24/2020-sb)

Bars, Strip Clubs and Churches: U.S. Virus Outbreaks Enter Unwieldy Phase

PITTSBURGH — After months of lockdown in which outbreaks of the coronavirus often centered in nursing homes, prisons and meatpacking plants, the nation is entering a new and uncertain phase of the pandemic. New COVID-19 clusters have been found in a Pentecostal church in Oregon, a strip club in Wisconsin, and in every imaginable place in between.

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at least 100 people tested positive for the virus after visiting bars in the Tigerland nightlife district, popular among Louisiana State University students.

At a Christian summer camp near Colorado Springs, at least 11 employees fell ill just before the season’s opening, leading the camp to cancel overnight stays for the first time in 63 years.

And in Las Vegas, just weeks after casinos reopened, a handful of employees from casinos, restaurants and hotels have tested positive, and frightened workers on Monday begged guests to wear masks in a news conference conducted over video.

The newly emerging clusters — which vary in size from a handful of cases to hundreds and have cropped up in large cities as well as small towns — reflect the unpredictable course of the coronavirus. They also underscore risks that experts say are likely to persist as long as states try to reopen economies and Americans venture back into public without a vaccine.

New known virus cases were on the rise in 23 states on Monday as the outlook worsened across much of the nation’s South and West. Hospitalizations for the coronavirus reached their highest levels yet in the pandemic in Arizona and Texas, and Missouri reported its highest single-day case totals over the weekend.

Even as much of the Northeast and Midwest continued to see improvement, there were signs of new spread in Ohio, where case numbers have started trending upward after weeks of improvement, and in Pennsylvania, where several counties have had troubling numbers of cases.

“This is exactly what most people would expect when you lift stay-at-home orders and isolation orders,” said Rebecca Christofferson, an infectious-disease expert at Louisiana State University, who said that reopening along with fatigue over social distancing for many Americans were creating new sorts of virus clusters.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/bars-strip-clubs-churches-u-120502700.html

U.S. Cases Rise 1.6%; New Highs in Texas, Arizona: Virus Update

Bloomberg) -- Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert, told Congress he was seeing a “disturbing surge” in new cases. California, Texas and Arizona reported their biggest daily jumps, and Florida’s infection rate climbed above 10%.

As many as 31 states have R0 figures above 1, according to the Rt.live website, meaning that each person with the virus infects at least one other. The World Trade Organization said its worst-case scenario for cross-border commerce this year will likely be avoided, depending on whether there’s a second wave of outbreaks.

Novak Djokovic, the world’s leading men’s tennis player, tested positive for Covid-19 days after an exhibition tournament in the Balkans featuring him was cut short. England eased more restrictions as deaths continued to fall.

Key Developments:

Global Tracker: Cases pass 9.1 million; deaths top 474,000Virus surges across U.S. throw reopenings into disarrayEU may opt to keep Americans out when borders openFauci says U.S. plans to step up testing as cases risePandemic exposes plight of Portugal’s African migrantsTracking the spread of the virus outbreak in the U.S.

Subscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the coronavirus.

EU May Opt to Keep Americans Out (5:17 p.m. NY)

The European Union may decide to keep the door shut to Americans when the bloc eases controls on its external borders.

Diplomats from the 27-nation EU are scheduled to convene Wednesday to discuss the criteria for lifting a curb on non-essential travel to the bloc as of July 1. One of the criteria up for discussion is “reciprocity,” which would mean U.S. citizens wouldn’t be allowed into the bloc starting next month because Europeans are still barred for health reasons from traveling to their country.

Europe is trying to revive domestic economies as the summer tourist season gets underway while guarding against a second wave of infections. The restrictions were introduced in mid-March for 30 days and extended three times through June as Europe battled to contain the coronavirus.

Texas Reports More Than 5,000 New Cases (5 p.m. NY)

Texas reported a record 5,489 new cases, bringing the total to 120,370, according to the state health department. That represented a 4.8% increase, well above the 3.7% seven-day average. Hospitalizations, meanwhile, surged by more than 10% to 4,092. The 381 new admissions was the single biggest daily increase since the pandemic emerged.

Despite the surge, Governor Greg Abbott said during an interview with KTBX TV on Tuesday that he has no intention of reimposing an economic lockdown at this time, and that schools will reopen as planned in late summer.

South African Reports Record Deaths (4:20 p.m. NY)

The number of people who died after contracting the coronavirus in South Africa rose by a daily record of 111, bringing the total tally to 2,102, while new cases surpassed 4,000 for a fourth consecutive day, data released Monday by the Health Ministry shows. The country has confirmed 106,108 infections since the first one was detected on March 5, the most in Africa, with the number now doubling on average every 12 days.

U.S. Cases Rise 1.6% (4 p.m. NY)

Coronavirus cases in the U.S. increased by 35,695 from the same time Monday to 2.33 million, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News. The 1.6% gain was higher than the average daily increase of 1.3% the past seven days. Deaths rose 0.7% to 120,913.

Florida reported 103,506 cases, up 3.3% from a day earlier, compared with an average increase of 3.8% in the previous seven days. Deaths reached 3,237, an increase of 2%,Arizona broke its daily case record, adding nearly 3,600, bringing the total to 58,179. The state also reported 42 deaths, raising the toll to 1,384.California reported 5,019 new confirmed cases, its biggest daily increase, for a total of 183,073. The number of deaths rose by 65 to 5,580.

Vegas Casinos Pay Gamblers to Wear Masks (3:45 p.m. NY)

Caesars Entertainment Corp. said it has been handing out $20 in gambling credit to guests wearing masks at five of its Las Vegas casinos. The players, who must be members of the company’s customer loyalty program, are chosen by casino staff wandering the floor. Some $7,500 was given to 375 players last weekend, the company said. Wynn Resorts Ltd. said it is also offering incentives to players wearing masks.

As of now...

Coronavirus Cases:
9,531,810

Deaths:
485,120

Recovered:
5,178,969