Coronavirus live news: California sees record daily cases as global infections top 15m | World news

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday downplayed the importance of wearing face masks during the pandemic, calling his treasury secretary’s assertion that using them would be a factor in reactivating the economy “disproportionate”, AP reports.

López Obrador had never been seen publicly wearing a mask until he flew to Washington earlier this month to meet with President Donald Trump.

“If a mask was an option for the economy’s reactivation, Id put one on immediately,” López Obrador said Wednesday. “But it’s not like that. I follow the recommendations of the doctors, of the scientists.”

The World Health Organization recommends the wearing of masks among other measures to slow the spread of Covid-19. At age 66, López Obrador also falls into an at-risk group of people who should wear masks.

Mexico continued to report high transmission rates Wednesday, with 6,019 newly confirmed cases, for a cumulative total of 362,274 infections. The Health Department also reported 790 more deaths, bringing the total so far in the pandemic to 41,190, the fourth highest total behind the United Kingdom at 45,586.

Chilean senators on Wednesday voted to approve a controversial bill that allows citizens to withdraw 10% of their pension savings to help ease the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reports.

The bill, which polls suggest has widespread public support, has been staunchly opposed by the government of President Sebastian Pinera but was approved by 29 votes to 13 with one abstention.

The European Union has granted Honduras €80m ($93m) in aid to help the impoverished Central American nation’s health system cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, an EU representative said on Wednesday.

Reuters reports that, despite strict measures to curb the spread of the pandemic, local hospitals have struggled to cope with the number of patients with respiratory illnesses in Honduras, which has registered 35,345 infections and 988 deaths from the virus.

“In Honduras, €80m will be allocated in the areas of health, early recovery, measures to aid economic recovery, jobs and human rights,” Alessandro Palmero, the EU’s representative to Honduras, told reporters. Analysts expect the pandemic to cause the Honduran economy to contract by between 2.9% and 3.9% this year and lose 500,000 jobs. Some 62% of the population already lives in poverty.

NSW recorded 19 new cases of coronavirus in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday. The number is around what we’ve seen in recent days, with 20 cases recorded on Sunday – at the time the highest one-day total for NSW in three months.

The 19 new cases are:

• Three people associated with the Crossroads Hotel cluster
• Nine people associated with the Thai Rock restaurant cluster
• Three cases still under investigation
• One south-western Sydney resident who acquired their infection in Victoria and has been self-isolating since arriving in NSW
• Three returned travellers in hotel quarantine.

In Australia, Victorian state premier Daniel Andrews says the state has recorded 403 new cases overnight, and five new deaths. The cases figure is down from yesterday’s record increase of 484.

Four of the people who died were in aged care, Andrews said.

More on the White House Cafeteria closing, from NBC:

The White House is conducting contact tracing after a cafeteria worker tested positive for coronavirus, three Trump administration officials tell NBC News.

The cafeteria in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, or EEOB, was closed this week after the case was discovered, officials said. It was unclear how long the facility will remain closed, although some staffers were told it could remain shuttered for two weeks.

Part of the White House complex, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building sits just across West Executive Ave. from the West Wing. It houses the offices of much of the senior White House staff, including officials from the coronavirus task force, the vice president’s office, the National Security Council and several economic policy shops.

A cafeteria employee who works in a building where some White House staffers have offices has tested positive for the coronavirus, NBC reports.

The White House is doing contact tracing after the worker in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is next to the White House, tested positive, NBC News reporter Josh Lederman said on Twitter. The White House Medical Office has determined the risk of transmission of the virus is low, he said.

Mexico’s Health Ministry on Wednesday reported 6,019 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 790 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 362,274 cases and 41,190 deaths.

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

Earlier, Latin America exceeded the 4 million mark after Brazil reported a record number of cases.

South Africa on Wednesday announced a record 24-hour increase of 572 coronavirus deaths, bringing its total number of fatalities to 5,940, AFP reports.

The country is the worst-affected in Africa and among the top five in the world in terms of confirmed cases, with 394,948 infections reported to date.

“Regrettably we report 572 new Covid-19 related deaths. This brings the cumulative number of deaths to 5,940,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a daily statement.

Almost half the total number of deaths have been reported in the Western Cape province, while the majority of positive cases are in Gauteng – South Africa’s financial hub and epicentre of the outbreak.

The mortality rate has remained low, however, at around 1.5% on Wednesday.

Almost 60% of the country’s Covid-19 patients have recovered from the virus.

Dr Deborah Birx, the chief medical officer on the White House’s coronavirus task force, has called the surge in infections across the United States, “a very different epidemic than we had in March and April”.

Speaking on Fox news, Birx said that the the virus event across the South and West of the US really started after 10 June: “This was an event that we think can be traced to Memorial Day, opening up and people travelling again.”

In late May, Memorial Day saw many Americans across the country abandon social distancing guidelines as they sunbathed on beaches and held pool parties for the holiday that traditionally marks the beginning of the US summer.

“The turnaround times [for testing] particularly across the south are too long. The most hardest hit state are having the longest turnaround times,” said Birx.

Birx explained that the delay in testing is related to the size of the current outbreak: “We have almost 70% of every parish in Louisiana with a test positive rate of 10%.”

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.

As always, questions, suggestions and news from your part of the world are welcome on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.

The US state of California has recorded its highest number of new cases in a single day, as the state surpasses New York for the greatest total of cases in the country.

The state saw 12,807 confirmed cases on Tuesday, the governor, Gavin Newsom, announced on Wednesday. That figure brings the state’s total to more than 413,576 since the pandemic began.

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

• Global cases passed 15m. The number of coronavirus cases worldwide passed 15m on Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government data. Known coronavirus deaths number 617,832.
• Indian-administered Kashmir has imposed a strict lockdown for a week, as authorities warned of rising coronavirus cases, one day after cancelling a major annual Hindu pilgrimage. Authorities said the Muslim-majority Himalayan valley, apart from one district, would go into lockdown until 29 July, when the restrictions would be reviewed.
• US daily coronavirus deaths surpass 1,000 for first time since June. The seven-day average for the number of deaths in the country has been slowly rising this month, according to multiple data analyses, and went past the 1,000 mark on Tuesday, taking US fatalities to more than 142,000.
• The US state of California has recorded its highest number of new cases in a single day, as the state surpasses New York for the greatest total of cases in the country. The state saw 12,807 confirmed cases on Tuesday, the governor, Gavin Newsom, announced on Wednesday. That figure brings the state’s total to more than 413,576 since the pandemic began, Newsom announced.
• Australia to post biggest budget deficit since second world war.The government that went to the last federal election declaring it was “back in black” will on Thursday unveil the largest budget deficit since the second world war, reflecting the substantial fiscal support rolled out during the pandemic and a decline in revenue because of a contraction in activity.
• Africa’s confirmed Covid-19 cases exceed 750,000 – Reuters tally.The tally showed the continent had 751,151 cases, 15,721 deaths and 407,461 recoveries. Cases crossed the 500,000 mark on 8 July.
• The UK government’s flagship test-and-trace system is failing to contact thousands of people in areas with the highest infection rates in England, raising further questions about the £10bn programme described by Boris Johnson as “world-beating”.
• Female leaders have been better at tackling Covid-19, says ECB chief. The differences in policies and communication were “quite stunning” in countries led by women, said the European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde.
• US agrees to pay Pfizer $2bn for Covid-19 vaccine doses by end of year. The Trump administration will pay Pfizer nearly $2bn for a December delivery of 100m doses of a Covid-19 vaccine the pharmaceutical company is developing. The agreement is part of a plan to ramp up manufacturing in the event a vaccine is approved.