Coronavirus live news: global deaths near 500,000 as Australian state of Victoria steps up efforts to fight outbreak | World news

Video has emerged of Trump campaign volunteers apparently removing social distancing stickers from seats in the arena where the US president gave a campaign rally that many public health experts had warned against because of the still-surging coronavirus pandemic.

The Washington Post published the video, which it says shows Trump campaign workers methodically removing the stickers from seats at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The labels read “Do Not Sit Here, Please!” and had been placed there by the venue in order to minimize the risk of Covid-19 infection.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is reportedly likely to announce a permanent boost to unemployment benefit payments in the mini-budget in July, AAP reports.

The federal government won’t reduce the country’s dole payments to the amount that the unemployed were receiving in the pre-coronavirus era, a media report says.

News Corp Australia newspapers cite senior ministers as saying the JobSeeker unemployment benefits formerly known as Newstart will increase from $565.70 a fortnight to $715.70.

The government temporarily raised the welfare payment from a base rate of $565.70 a fortnight to $1115.70 during the pandemic, a change due to end in September.

News Corp reports Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is likely to announce a permanent boost to unemployment benefit payments in the mini-budget in July.

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

I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours. A reminder that you can get in touch on twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: [email protected].

Cases worldwide are nearing 10 million, as predicted by the World Health Organization, which warned the sombre milestone would be passed this week.

Nearly half a million people have lost their lives in the pandemic so far.

Months into the pandemic, fear of a second wave of infections now hangs over countries that have managed to stamp out the disease, mostly through economically and socially painful lockdowns.

In Australia, authorities in the state of Victoria are fighting a growing outbreak, which saw 41 cases diagnosed yesterday. The state’s battle against Covid-19 has intensified after an emergency department nurse tested positive to the virus and health workers descended on two Melbourne suburbs to control community transmission.

• Nearly half a million people have died over the course of the pandemic. The current toll stands at 497,427, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of infections is nearing 10m, with 9,937,618 currently confirmed.
• The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States rose to more than 2.5 million on Saturday. More than 125,000 Americans have died of Covid-19, the highest known death toll from the disease in the world.
• The US states of Florida, Arizona, Nevada, South Carolina and Georgia have recorded daily highs for coronavirus infections on Saturday, highlighting the worsening spread of the virus in several southern and western states, which is prompting some of them to roll back their reopening plans.
• Thousands of people demonstrated in some 60 cities and towns across Spain on Saturday to demand a collective rebuilding of society to tackle the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, in the biggest demonstrations since the crisis began.
• Brazil recorded 38,693 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 1,109 additional deaths. The country has now registered 1,313,667 total confirmed cases of the virus and 57,070 deaths.
• A growing number of Covid-19 infections among people under 35 years of age is a “worrying trend,” Ireland’s chief medical officer said on Saturday as the country reported the highest number of new infections for two weeks.
• The Czech Republic has registered the biggest spike in Covid-19 cases in more than two months, with several centres where the disease is spreading fast, the health ministry said Saturday.
• Zurich’s health authority has ordered a 10-day quarantine for almost 300 guests and staff of a nightclub after a reveller tested positive for coronavirus and had been proven to have infected others.
• A global fundraising meeting on Saturday raised €6.15bn ($6.9bn) from the United States, the European Commission and numerous countries to fight Covid-19, with many participants stressing that an eventual vaccine should be available to anyone who needs it.
• Spain is to uphold a ban on cruise liners from docking at its ports to stop the spread of Covid-19, according to a ministerial order published on Saturday.
• The governor of Bethlehem announced Saturday the temporary closure of the Palestinian city to contain the spread of coronavirus after a sharp rise in infections in the occupied West Bank.