COVID-19

The country's coronavirus death toll remained unchanged at 6346 on Thursday, health ministry data showed.

The last time Israel reported zero Covid-19 deaths was at the end of June last year, after lockdown measures curbed a first wave of infections.

Israel's outbreak has eased after hitting its peak in January this year.

The Israeli government started to relax lockdown restrictions a month later as vaccinations against Covid-19 were rolled out more widely.

It has close to 16 million confirmed cases, second only to the US.

The country is struggling with a second wave, raising more fears about its overwhelmed health care system.

Crowds have formed outside hospitals in major cities which are filled to capacity. A number of people have died while waiting for oxygen.

Families are waiting hours to perform funeral rites, Reuters news agency reports, with at least one Delhi crematorium resorting to building pyres in its car park in order to cope with the numbers arriving.

A number of people have died while waiting for oxygen, and more than 99% of all intensive care beds are full.

India is in the grips of a second wave of Covid infections and on Thursday recorded the highest one-day tally of new cases anywhere in the world.

The country has recorded close to 16 million confirmed infections.

There have been 314,835 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, while deaths rose by 2,104.

This comes after the government announced two more cases of Covid-19 in the community, two children - one a student - from a settlement in the capital Suva.

Education Minister Rosy Akbar said it is unfortunate that the details of the student were released and are now circulating on social media.

Ms Akbar said the ministry strives to protect the interest of all the children and she reminded the public to be mindful of the sensitivity surrounding this issue.

She urged people to refrain from sharing such confidential information.

It is the first positive test connected to the relay since it began March 25 from northeastern Fukushima prefecture.

Organisers say the 30-year-old policeman was assigned to control traffic on the April 17 leg in southwestern Kagawa prefecture. They said the officer developed symptoms and tested positive the next day. Local health authorities are investigating.

Officials say the policeman was wearing a mask and taking social-distancing precautions and other measures.

Health authorities have described the weekend rites attended by more than 500 people as a potential superspreader event.

They confirmed three new cases late on Tuesday, two of which were soldiers at a managed isolation quarantine facility (MIQ).

The third case reported is a woman in her 30s who is the daughter of a 53-year-old woman who worked as a maid at the same MIQ.

The maid had contracted the virus from a male soldier who authorities now believe had contracted Covid-19 while handling the baggage of two Fijian nationals who returned from India on 10 April.

In a note to the media about its updated travel guidance, it said the pandemic continued to "pose unprecedented risks to travellers".

The current US "Do Not Travel" advisory covers 34 out of 200 countries.

Covid-19 has now claimed more than three million lives worldwide - more than half a million of them in the US.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned the world was "approaching the highest rate of infection" so far, despite the global rollout of vaccination programmes.

One of the cases is classified as community transmission and the patient is the daughter of a hotel worker who was confirmed Covid-19 positive yesterday.

The hotel worker was based at a border quarantine facility.

Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services Dr James Fong confirmed the second community transmission case in a press conference this afternoon.

“Due to her extensive exposure with the public, this hotel staff, and now her daughter, has been the central focus of our contact tracing,” Dr Fong said.

Government offices and essential services, such as hospitals, pharmacies and grocers, will be open during the lockdown, which starts on Monday night.

The city had imposed a weekend curfew, but reported its highest single-day spike so far on Sunday - 24,462 cases.

India has been reeling from a deadly second wave since the start of April.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the city had almost run out of beds at hospital intensive care units (ICUs) and that oxygen was in short supply.

The milestone comes the day after the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned the world was "approaching the highest rate of infection" so far.

India - experiencing a second wave - recorded more than 230,000 new cases on Saturday alone.

Almost 140 million cases have been recorded since the pandemic began.

WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Friday that "cases and deaths are continuing to increase at worrying rates".

He added that "globally, the number of new cases per week has nearly doubled over the past two months".