Brazil coronavirus death toll nears 50,000: Live updates | News

• Nearly 50,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Brazil, the world No 2 hotspot, with 1,022 fatalities in the last 24 hours, according to the country’s health ministry. Brazil confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus on February 26 and passed 1 million cases on Friday.

• South Africa has announced nearly 5,000 new coronavirus cases for a new daily record. The country has recorded a total of 92,000 confirmed cases, which is about 30 percent of all cases across the African continent. At least 1,877 people have died in the country.

• The Palestinian Authority is reinstating a five-day coronavirus restriction in two West Bank cities following a spike in infections. The actions in Hebron and Nablus came after 86 Palestinians tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases there to 687, including two deaths.

• More than 463,000 people have died as a result of the new coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. At least 8.75 million people have been confirmed to have the coronavirus around the world and more than 4.2 million have recovered.

Here are the latest updates:

Sunday, June 20

03:24 GMT – South Korea reports 48 new cases

South Korea reported 48 new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, down 19 from a day earlier, Yonhap news agency reported.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said imported cases have dropped, but local infections rose amid a continuing spread of the virus in the Seoul metropolitan area and the central city of Daejeon.

Of the new cases, 40 of them are local infections and eight imported cases, raising the total caseload to 12,421. There were no additional deaths, keeping the total death toll at 280.

03:12 GMT – Australian state extends state of emergency in Victoria

Australia’s second most populous state, Victoria, on Sunday extended its state of emergency for four more weeks to July 19, as it battles a spike in coronavirus infections with a pick-up in community transmission, Reuters news agency reported.

The move came a day after the state announced it would reimpose restrictions capping visitors to households to five people and outdoor gatherings to 10, starting Monday. The limits had been relaxed to allow 20 people in households and public gatherings on June 1.

Victoria reported 19 new infections on Sunday, the fifth day of double digit-rises. The state has now had 1,836 total confirmed cases, or a quarter of the cases in Australia, since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted.

State health minister Jenny Mikakos said 210 of the state’s cases are believed tied to community transmission, partly blaming families who have had big parties, lunches and dinners attended by people with mild symptoms since restrictions were eased on June 1.

02:48 GMT – Spain: No 14-day quarantine requirement for UK visitors

Spain is dropping the country’s 14-day quarantine requirement for British visitors when citizens of countries that are in Europe’s Schengen Area zone will be allowed to freely enter the country starting on Sunday.

Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya told the BBC: “We are doing this out of the respect for the 400,000 British citizens who have a second residence in Spain.”

González Laya says she hopes the British government will likewise drop the quarantine requirement for Spanish citizens traveling to the UK. Some 250,000 Spaniards have homes in the UK, she said.

02:30 GMT – North Macedonia reports 11 deaths, while Greece adds one fatality

Greece has reported one more death from the coronavirus while the small neighbouring country of North Macedonia reached a new daily record with 11 virus-related fatalities, according to the Associated Press.

The deaths brought North Macedonia’s toll in the pandemic to 233 and confirmed cases to 5,005 as of Saturday. Infections began to climb there early this month after authorities lifted movement restrictions and ended a curfew.

Health Minister Venko Filipce said in a TV interview that cases are increasing because residents ignored recommendations to avoid family gatherings, to wear masks and to maintain social distance.

In Greece, authorities announced 19 new confirmed new cases. The country’s total number of confirmed cases now stands at 3,254, with 190 deaths.

Greek authorities said the median age of everyone who tested positive is 48 and 76 for those who died.

02:00 GMT – Trump urges slowdown in COVID-19 testing

US President Donald Trump told thousands of his supporters that he had asked US officials to slow down testing for the novel coronavirus, calling it a “double-edged sword” that led to more cases being discovered.

Trump said the United States had now tested 25 million people, far more than other countries.

“When you do testing to that extent, you’re gonna find more people you’re gonna find more cases. So I said to my people slow the testing down, please,” Trump told a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where many supporters were not wearing face masks.

A White House official said Trump was joking about his call for a slowdown in testing.

01:30 GMT – Mexico reports 4,717 new coronavirus infections, 387 deaths

Mexico reported 4,717 new infections and 387 additional deaths from the coronavirus, Reuters news agency said quoting the health ministry, bringing the total number in the country to 175,202 cases and 20,781 deaths.

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

01:18 GMT – Rio mayor suspends games to give teams more time to prepare

The resumption of Brazilian football was dealt a setback when the city’s mayor suspended matches involving Botafogo and Fluminense in order to give the clubs more time to prepare for action.

The Rio de Janeiro state championship became the first of Brazil’s soccer tournaments to restart after a three-month hiatus on Thursday when reigning champions Flamengo beat Bangu 3-0.

However, Fluminense and Botafogo threatened not to play games scheduled for June 22, with Fluminense players saying they needed more time to train, and Botafogo declaring they would only be ready to play in July.

With courts refusing their appeal to postpone the games and the two clubs worried they would lose points by a WO, Mayor Marcelo Crivella took action.

His initial decree suspended all games in the Rio state championship until June 25 but he reversed that position hours later to halt only Botafogo’s match against Cabofriense and Fluminense’s encounter with Volta Redonda.

00:01 GMT – Montenegro restores some lockdown measures after new cases emerge

Montenegrin health authorities have restored some lockdown measures in a northeastern border town to contain a cluster of coronavirus cases, AP news agency reported.

Authorities have confirmed new cases of the virus after there had been none in Montenegro for several weeks. They say that out of the country’s 31 active cases, 26 were imported from neighbouring Serbia.

The infected people include some who went to a soccer game in Serbia’s capital of Belgrade and some citizens of the northeastern Montenegrin town of Rozaje who traveled to a town across the border.

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Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Ted Regencia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

You can find all the key developments from yesterday, June 20, here.