(Reuters) – Fears of a second wave of COVID-19 infections grew on Friday, with a record daily increase in India, warnings against complacency in Europe and news from half a dozen U.S. states that their hospital beds were filling up fast.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* More than 7.56 million people have been reported infected with the novel coronavirus around the world and 421,439 have died, a Reuters tally showed as of 1358 GMT on Friday.
* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.
* For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.
* Eikon users, see MacroVitals (cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?navid=1592404098) for a case tracker and a summary of developments.
EUROPE
* The European Commission received a political mandate from EU governments to negotiate on their behalf advance purchases of promising coronavirus vaccines, the EU’s top health official said.
* Britain said it would introduce border controls in stages on European Union goods after the end of the Brexit transition period, to try to soften the blow for companies already battling the pandemic.
* British prime minister said figures showing the economy had shrunk by a quarter in the March-April period had not come as a surprise because it was always going to hit a country that is dependent on services.
* Britain’s government have brought in quarantine rules to protect public health, a spokesman for the prime minister said, declining to comment on legal action brought by British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair.
* Germany can avoid a second wave of the pandemic and a new 130 billion euro ($147 billion) stimulus package should help Europe’s largest economy start recovering in the second half of the year, ministers said.
* German insurers are putting together plans for a multi-billion euro public-private fund to deal with catastrophes like pandemics, magazine Der Spiegel reported.
* The Finnish parliament’s constitutional committee has queried the legal grounds for the European Union’s proposed 750 billion euro recovery package.
* Norway will allow travel to and from Finland, Iceland and the Swedish island of Gotland from June 15, but is maintaining existing travel restrictions imposed on mainland Sweden.
* North Macedonia’s president lifted the state of emergency, a move that paves the way for a parliamentary election.
* Italy’s prime minister outlined recovery plans including digital and infrastructure investments ahead of a policy congress aimed at laying down the basis for a relaunch of the coronavirus-battered economy.
AMERICAS
* U.S. property and casualty insurers have cast the coronavirus pandemic as an unprecedented event whose massive cost to small businesses they are neither able nor required to cover.
* Manufacturers in Brazil are trying to show they can safely operate their factories at reduced capacity, in a bid to avoid the shutdowns that have hit the mining and food processing sectors.
* Latin American countries should renew domestic flights no later than July to avoid more bankruptcies, according to the International Air Transport Association.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Beijing shut six major wholesale food markets and delayed plans for some students to return to school after China’s capital reported new infections for a second day running.
* The government of China’s central Hubei province said it will lower its COVID-19 emergency response level from Saturday.
* India’s ambitious plan to provide some 3 trillion rupees ($39.5 billion) in loans to small businesses has got off to a slow start with banks disbursing only a tiny fraction of the available funds.
* This year’s Azerbaijan, Singapore and Japanese Formula One Grands Prix have been cancelled.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* The pandemic is accelerating in Africa, spreading to the hinterland from capital cities where it arrived with travellers, said the WHO.
* Turkey’s top medical association criticised a decision to ease lockdown restrictions in the country, saying the moves were not backed by science and had come too soon.
* U.N. aid agencies said three quarters of the programmes they back in Yemen will have to close in the next few weeks without more funding, even as both cholera and the novel coronavirus spread.
* Peacocks, ostriches and baboons have joined an animal baby boom at a Palestinian zoo during the coronavirus closure, as they let nature take its course free from human distractions.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
* Global shares pared losses while oil prices reversed course and edged higher as fears of fresh lockdowns of economies to combat the coronavirus faded.[MKTS/GLOB]
* Italy’s economic contraction this year may be worse than the 8% decline currently forecast by the government, the economy minister said.
* Producer prices in Canada gained 1.2% in May from April, the first increase recorded this year, led by strong gains in meat prices caused as COVID-19 closed down packing plants, according to a flash estimate.
* Malawi’s economy could shrink by 3.8% in 2020 in worst case scenario estimates, the finance minister said.
* Turkey’s industrial output slumped a bigger-than-expected 31.4%, data showed.
(Compiled by Linda Pasquini, Sarah Morland and Uttaresh.V; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Tomasz Janowski)
