Key points
Balochistan registered three more cases of the coronavirus during the last 24 hours, taking the provincial tally to 11,777, according to the Balochistan health department.
The number of deaths in the province remains unchanged at 136.
As the world awaits a Covid-19 vaccine, the next big advance in battling the pandemic could come from a class of biotech therapies widely used against cancer and other disorders — antibodies designed specifically to attack this new virus.
Development of monoclonal antibodies to target the virus has been endorsed by leading scientists, says Reuters in its report. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, called them “almost a sure bet” against Covid-19.
When a virus gets past the body’s initial defences, a more specific response kicks in, triggering production of cells that target the invader. These include antibodies that recognise and lock onto a virus, preventing the infection from spreading.
Monoclonal antibodies, grown in bioreactor vats, are copies of these naturally-occurring proteins.
Scientists are still working out the exact role of neutralising antibodies in recovery from Covid-19, but drugmakers are confident that the right antibodies or a combination can alter the course of the disease that has claimed more than 675,000 lives globally.
Read the full report here.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported 30 coronavirus cases and six deaths during the past 24 hours, according to the provincial health department.
This is the lowest single-day rise in Covid-19 cases since April 7, when the province reported 27 cases. So far 34,253 cases and 1,208 deaths have been reported in the province.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that there might never be a “silver bullet” for the new coronavirus, despite the rush to discover effective vaccines, AFP reported.
The WHO urged governments and citizens to focus on doing the known basics, such as testing, contact tracing, maintaining physical distance and wearing a mask in order to suppress the pandemic.
“We all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference. “However, there's no silver bullet at the moment — and there might never be.
“For now, stopping outbreaks comes down to the basics of public health and disease control. Do it all."
French Prime Minister Jean Castex has urged the country “not to let down its guard” in the fight against the coronavirus in order to prevent the need for a new national lockdown, as concern grows over a recent surge in cases, according to AFP.
“The virus has not gone on holiday and neither have we,” the premier said on a visit to the northeastern city of Lille.
“We need to protect ourselves against this virus, without putting a stop to our economic and social life, in other words avoiding the risk of a new generalised lockdown.”
219 new cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in Sindh, taking the provincial tally to 121,705, according to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.
Two more people died of the disease, with the overall provincial death toll rising to 2,226.
A total of 4,484 tests were carried out during the last 24 hours, according to Shah.
Brazil recorded 25,800 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 541 deaths from the disease caused by the virus in the past 24 hours, the health ministry has said.
Brazil has registered more than 2.73 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 94,104, according to ministry data.
People will have to wear masks outdoors in many of the major areas of the southern French city of Nice, Mayor Christian Estrosi has said, including parts of the tourist spot of the Promenade des Anglais.
The measures for Nice coincide with similar new rules to make the wearing of masks compulsory outdoors in several major French cities, as France looks to fight against a resurgence of the Covid-19 virus.
According to Reuters, French Prime Minister Jean Castex was in the northern French city of Lille, which also made the wearing of masks compulsory in much of Lille’s pedestrian areas and parks.
The number of people infected with Covid-19 across the world has crossed 18 million, according to the Coronavirus Resource Centre at Johns Hopkins University.
The United States has the highest number of cases with more than four million infections, followed by Brazil with 2.7m and India with 1.8m infections.
More than 689,000 people have died from the virus globally so far.
A novel coronavirus outbreak that began in the Vietnamese city of Danang more than a week ago has spread to at least four city factories with a combined workforce of about 3,700, state media has reported.
Four cases were found at the plants in different industrial parks in the central city which collectively employ 77,000 people, the Lao Dong newspaper said.
Vietnam, praised widely for its decisive measures to combat the coronavirus since it first appeared in late January, is battling new clusters of infection having gone more than three months without detecting any domestic transmission.
Authorities have reported one new case linked to Danang, a tourism hot spot where a case was detected on July 24, Vietnam’s first domestically transmitted case in 100 days.
India’s interior minister and the chiefs of two big states have been hospitalized with Covid-19 as the country’s daily cases topped 50,000 for a fifth straight day.
The country reported 52,972 new confirmed infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 1.8 million — the third highest in the world after the United States and Brazil — data from India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare showed, Reuters reported.
With 771 new deaths, the Covid-19 disease has now killed 38,135 people in India, including that of a minister on Sunday in the most-populous state of Uttar Pradesh.
The Balochistan government has decided to extend the province-wide smart lockdown enforced to curb the spread of the coronavirus till August 17.
According to the notification, during the time the lockdown is in place:
The notification stated that businesses and shops will be allowed to remain open from 9am to 7pm six days a week.
China reported 43 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the mainland as of Aug 2, down from 49 a day earlier, the country’s national health authority has said.
The National Health Commission said 36 of the new cases were locally transmitted, including 28 in Xinjiang, while another seven cases were imported infections involving travellers from overseas. This compared with 33 local infections and 16 imported cases reported a day earlier.
Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti said that he has contracted Covid-19 and will self-isolate at home for two weeks.
“I don’t have symptoms except a very mild cough,” Hoti said, according to Reuters.
Hoti’s government has faced criticism for not doing enough to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, with the small Balkan country reporting a sharp increase in cases in the past few days — including 13 deaths on Sunday.
Around 9,000 people have been infected with the new coronavirus and 249 have died since mid-March, when the first cases with the virus were reported in the small Balkan country.
Another 296 people have recovered from coronavirus in Pakistan, taking the total number of recoveries to 248,873.
According to the government's database on coronavirus, 1,038 people are in critical condition.
Punjab has reported 24 new cases of the coronavirus and four more fatalities, according to the government's Covid-19 portal.
This has taken the total cases in the province to 93,197 while the death toll has risen to 2,148. More than 82,000 people have recovered from the virus in the province so far.
Islamabad has recorded 24 new cases during the last 24 hours, according to the government's Covid-19 portal while Gilgit Baltistan has reported 23 and Azad Jammu and Kashmir has confirmed seven.
GB has also reported one additional fatality from the virus.
The breakdown of cases and deaths is as follows:
Singapore will make some incoming travellers wear an electronic monitoring device to ensure that they comply with coronavirus quarantines as the city-state gradually reopens its borders, authorities have said.
From August 11, the devices will be given to incoming travellers, including citizens and residents, from a select group of countries who will be allowed to isolate at home rather than at a state-appointed facility.
Travellers to Singapore are required to activate the device, which uses GPS and Bluetooth signals, upon reaching their home and will receive notifications on the device which they must acknowledge. Any attempt to leave home or tamper with the device will trigger an alert to the authorities.
Millions of Covid-19 tests able to detect the virus within 90 minutes will be rolled out to British hospitals, care homes and laboratories to boost capacity in the coming months, the country’s health minister has said.
They will comprise 5.8 million tests using DNA and 450,000 swab tests. Neither will need to be administered by a health professional, said Matt Hancock.
“The fact these tests can detect flu as well as Covid-19 will be hugely beneficial as we head into winter, so patients can follow the right advice to protect themselves and others,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
Balochistan has reported 31 new cases over the last 48 hours, taking the provincial tally to 11,774.
It has reported no new deaths for the last 11 days. The total fatalities stand at 136.
Argentina broke past 200,000 Covid-19 cases and Colombia set a daily record as grim milestones topple in Latin America, pushing the world’s worst affected region towards a combined 5 million cases.
Latin America, which has some eight per cent of the world’s population, accounts for close to 30pc of global cases and fatalities, with infections still spreading fast and hitting regional leaders like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Bolivia’s Jeanine Anez.
Colombia in the last week passed 300,000 cases and 10,000 fatalities. Argentina, which had early success slowing the spread of the virus, has seen a recent spike in infections. Five Latin American countries are now in the global top 10 for cases, according to a Reuters tally.
The Punjab government has ended a lockdown enforced in the province on the occasion of Eidul Azha to prevent a spike in cases ahead of schedule.
A notification from the provincial government stated that the lockdown was being ended on midnight August 2 instead of August 5. A tweet from the Punjab government's account said the decision was taken after "encouraging results from smart samples collected from cattle markets".
At least 40 passengers and crew from a luxury cruise liner have tested positive for Covid-19 and the authorities are still trying to trace a number of passengers from two recent Arctic voyages, according to Reuters.
Four crew members on the MS Roald Amundsen were hospitalised on Friday when the ship arrived at the port of Tromsoe, and later diagnosed with the respiratory illness. Tests showed another 32 of the 158 staff were also infected.
While the crew was quarantined on the ship, the 178 passengers who arrived on Friday were allowed to disembark before anyone had been diagnosed, triggering a complex operation to locate them in order to contain any potential spread.
Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir have collectively reported 103 coronavirus cases and one death during the past 48 hours, according to the government's Covid-19 portal.
Here is a breakdown of the cases reported:
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she does not have confidence in White House coronavirus taskforce coordinator Dr Deborah Birx, linking her to disinformation about the virus spread by President Donald Trump, Reuters reports.
“I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don't have confidence there, no,” Speaker Pelosi told ABC's 'This Week' when asked if she has confidence in Birx.
Birx, asked about Pelosi's comment during an interview with CNN's 'State of the Union', said she had great respect for Pelosi and attributed the criticism to a New York Times article on the White House pandemic response that described Birx as having embraced overly optimistic assessments on the virus.
Iran reported its highest single-day novel coronavirus infection count in nearly a month, warning that most of its provinces have been hit by a resurgence of the disease, according to AFP.
Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said that 2,685 more people had tested positive for Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, the country's highest single-day count since July 8. She said the situation is “concerning” in 25 out of Iran's 31 provinces.
“Sadly, since late June, daily infections have been on a rising trajectory” in Qom in central Iran, she said. “We are concerned that trivialising the situation and lax observance of health protocols may lead to a worsening of the outbreak in the province."
Seven Chinese health officials arrived in Hong Kong, the first members of a 60-person team that will carry out widespread Covid-19 testing in the territory as it races to halt a third wave of illness, Reuters reported.
The initiative marks the first time mainland health officials have assisted Hong Kong in its battle to control the epidemic.
Members of the testing team, coordinated by the Chinese government, are mostly from public hospitals in Guangdong province, China's National Health Commission said. A group of local Hong Kong councilors said that some local residents fear China may use their presence as an opportunity to collect DNA samples for surveillance purposes.
The territory's government denied the claims, saying virus testing would only be conducted in the city and samples would not be transported to the mainland.
Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan said he had been discharged from hospital, three weeks after being admitted with “mild” coronavirus symptoms after testing positive for the disease, according to AFP.
Bachchan's actor-son Abishek, who was admitted at the same time, will remain in hospital, while his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai and granddaughter Aaradhya were discharged last week.
“I am back home. I will have to be in solitary quarantine in my room,” Bachchan wrote on Instagram, saying he had tested negative. He thanked his family, fans “and the excellent care and nursing” at the hospital, saying they “made it possible for me to see this day”.
The Philippines' health department has vowed to update its game plan against Covid-19 within a week and sought to beef up the healthcare workforce in the capital Manila where medical frontliners are calling for reviving strict lockdowns, Reuters reports.
In the largest call yet from medical experts to contain the virus, 80 groups representing 80,000 doctors and a million nurses, said the Philippines was losing the fight against the disease and warned of a collapse of the healthcare system from soaring infections without tighter controls.
In a statement, the Department of Health said it would come up with an updated Covid-19 strategy within seven days. It appealed to healthcare workers in the provinces and those returning from abroad to help beef up the frontline workforce in the capital, and sought help from universities and medical groups in hiring more doctors, nurses and other medical staff.
177 new cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in Sindh, raising the provincial tally to 121,486, according to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.
This is the lowest rise in daily infections since April 18, when the province recorded 138 cases. This is also the first time the province has recorded less than 200 cases since April 19, when 189 cases were reported.
One more person died of the disease, with Sindh's overall death toll rising to 2,224.
A total of 5,272 tests were carried out in the province during the last 24 hours, according to Shah.
116 new cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in Punjab, taking the provincial tally to 93,173, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority.
Two more people lost their lives due to Covid-19, with the overall death toll in the province rising to 2,144.
A total of 2,334 tests were performed in Punjab during the 24-hour period.
Russia has reported 5,427 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing its nationwide tally to 850,870, the fourth largest caseload in the world.
Russia's coronavirus taskforce said 70 people had died over the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll in the country of around 145 million people to 14,128.
India has reported nearly 55,000 new coronavirus cases today, down from the previous day’s record of 57,118 but raising the country’s total to 1.75 million.
The month of July accounted for more than 1.1 million of those cases.
The major cities of New Delhi and Mumbai might have passed their peaks, said a government expert, Randeep Guleria, according to Reuters. Subways, cinemas and other public facilities are closed until Aug 31.
A state of disaster has been declared in Australia's Victoria, with the local government implementing a night curfew as part of its harshest movement restrictions to date to contain the coronavirus.
State Premier Daniel Andrews said that the new restrictions, to be in place for six weeks until mid-September, will allow only one person per household to go shopping once a day.
Melbournians will not be able to go further than five kilometres (three miles) from home.
The United States counted 61,262 new coronavirus cases in the 24 hours leading up to 8:30pm Saturday (0030 GMT Sunday), according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
It was the fifth consecutive day with more than 60,000 infections recorded, according to the Baltimore-based university. There were also 1,051 deaths in the 24-hour period.
The US has now tallied more than 4.6 million cases and 154,319 deaths, making it the hardest-hit country in the world.
The World Health Organisation has warned that the coronavirus pandemic was likely to be “lengthy” after its emergency committee met to evaluate the crisis six months after sounding the international alarm, AFP reported.
The committee “highlighted the anticipated lengthy duration of this Covid-19 pandemic”, the WHO said in a statement, and warned of the risk of “response fatigue” given the socio-economic pressures on countries.
The panel gathered for the fourth time over the coronavirus crisis, half a year on from its January 30 declaration of a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) — the WHO's highest level of alarm.
A player has tested positive for coronavirus at the WTA Palermo Open, which marks the tennis season's resumption after a five-month break, AFP reported while quoting the WTA and organisers.
The competitor, who had no symptoms, withdrew just minutes before the start of qualifying this weekend for the tournament which gets underway in Sicily on August 3.
Her name was not revealed but shortly after the announcement 130th-ranked Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova, who had been due to take part in qualifying, withdrew because of illness.
The WTA confirmed that the tournament would go ahead as planned.