Brazil poised to overtake Italy as country with third-highest death toll – as it happened

At least three people were reported dead as coronavirus-hit Mumbai appeared to escape the worst of Cyclone Nisarga Wednesday, the first severe storm to threaten India’s financial capital in more than 70 years, AFP reports.

The city and its surrounds are usually sheltered from cyclones - the last deadly storm to hit the city was in 1948. Authorities had evacuated at least 100,000 people, including coronavirus patients, from flood-prone areas in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat ahead of Nisarga’s arrival.

In Mumbai, police announced fresh coronavirus restrictions on the city of 18 million people - which was just beginning to emerge from a months-long lockdown - banning gatherings of four people or more until Thursday afternoon.

Mumbai is India’s worst-hit city, home to a fifth of the country’s more than 200,000 coronavirus cases. The storm evacuees included nearly 150 coronavirus patients from a recently built field hospital in Mumbai, underscoring the difficulties facing the city ahead of the monsoon season as it struggles to contain the pandemic.

“Refrain from venturing out to coast-beaches, promenade, parks and other similar places along the coastline,” the police tweeted early Wednesday.

Key coronavirus questions as tens of thousands gather at protests across US

Unrest has swept across the United States since George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed in custody of Minneapolis police. Since then, protests have swelled in dozens of towns and cities across the country.

Tens of thousands of people have been standing shoulder to shoulder as they protest against the killing of George Floyd, after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes despite his cries that he could not breathe.

But the public health emergency that engulfed the nation – Sars-Cov-2, the virus which causes Covid-19 - has not disappeared.

Where are cases of coronavirus increasing?

More cases are being detected in a number of southern states, including Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. But cases are not increasing only in southern states. Alaska, Montana and California have also seen cases increase. In total, 17 states are seeing increases.

These increases reflect infections that may have taken place weeks ago. The novel coronavirus has a long incubation period, and people may not get tested until they feel ill.

Health officials in Portugal have insisted that increases in confirmed coronavirus cases in the Lisbon region are due to more tests being carried out in areas identified as hotspots, rather than signs of a second wave of outbreak.

The health ministry on Wednesday announced 366 new cases nationally, the biggest daily increase in almost four weeks. Officials said 335 of those new cases were in the Lisbon metropolitan area, while the outbreak is waning in the rest of the country.

The Lisbon total was almost double the number detected in the region the previous day.

The secretary of state for health, Antonio Sales, said the governments strategy is to encircle the hotspots, which are in low-income neighbourhoods around the capital, and run more tests there.

Construction workers and temporary staff working in the service sector are being especially targeted for testing.

The increase comes after Portugal eased restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus, leading to crowded beaches last week.