Partial solar eclipse wows sky-gazers

People use protective glasses to observe a partial solar eclipse from Mount Scopus in Jerusalem on Sunday. Sky-gazers in Asia and Africa witnessed the rare event as the moon covered a portion of earth’s view of the sun.SD-Agencies

Largest single-day increase in virus cases reported

The World Health Organization on Sunday reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases by its count, at more than 183,000 new cases in the latest 24 hours.

The U.N. health agency said Brazil led the way with 54,771 cases tallied and the U.S. next at 36,617. Over 15,400 came from India.

Experts said rising case counts can reflect multiple factors including more widespread testing as well as broader infection. Overall in the pandemic, WHO reported 8,708,008 cases — 183,020 in the last 24 hours — with 461,715 deaths worldwide, with a daily increase of 4,743.

German slaughterhouse outbreak tops 1,000 cases

A coronavirus outbreak at a German slaughterhouse has passed 1,000 infections, officials said on Saturday.

The number of new cases rose to 1,029 from 803 a day earlier, but a local official in northwest Germany, Sven-Georg Adenauer, said that there was no cause for alarm.

On June 17, a new cluster of new coronavirus cases was reported among workers at Toennies, the country’s largest meat processing facility located in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was the country’s largest outbreak since May. After initial reports, officials ordered the slaughterhouse to close for 14 days, and ordered testing and quarantine for about 6,500 workers at the site.

Saudi Arabia lifts nationwide curfew

Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry announced on Saturday the lifting of coronavirus restrictions on all the kingdom’s cities starting from Sunday morning.

The decision to return to “normalcy” became effective on Sunday, including the return of all economic and commercial activities, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

However, all international flights and the Umrah pilgrimage will continue to be suspended until further notice, the ministry said, adding that land and sea borders remain closed. The ministry asserted the importance to follow precautionary measures against the spreading of coronavirus.

Honduran president tests positive

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, is receiving treatment and will work remotely and through his aides.

“As president of the nation and a responsible citizen, I want to communicate that during the weekend I started to feel some discomfort and today I was diagnosed as having been infected with COVID-19,” Hernandez said in a televised speech last week.

Coronavirus antibodies may last only 2-3 months

A new study published on Thursday in Nature Medicine suggests that coronavirus antibodies may last only two to three months, especially in people who never show clinical symptoms while they get infected with COVID-19, which has killed more than 463,000 people globally so far.

Within eight weeks, 81 percent of the asymptomatic people had a reduction of neutralizing antibodies, compared with 62 percent of symptomatic patients.

In addition, the study also revealed that antibodies fell to undetectable levels in 40 percent of asymptomatic people, compared with 12.9 percent of symptomatic people.

(SD-Agencies)