Fears as first Covid-19 case reported in rebel-held Syrian camps – as it happened

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South Africa announced Thursday its highest daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases with 13,674.

Africas most developed country is now a hot spot in the global pandemic with 238,339 total confirmed cases. Gauteng province, which contains Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria, is home to more than a third of the total cases.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said South Africa could run out of available hospital beds within the month.

The African continent has more than 523,000 confirmed virus cases after having passed the half-million mark on Wednesday. But shortages in testing materials mean the true number is unknown.

9 Jul 202018.48 EDT

Tom Phillips

Here is more on those two top politicians in Latin America testing positive for coronavirus:

Venezuela’s second-most powerful man and Bolivia’s interim president have both announced they have tested positive for Covid-19 - the latest top Latin American politicians to fall victim to a pandemic that has claimed more than 120,000 lives in the region.

Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s number two official, announced his diagnosis on social media on Thursday evening and said he was in self-isolation.

“We will prevail!!” the highly-influential Chavista tweeted.

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Jeanine Añez, Bolivia’s right-wing interim leader, said she had received the same diagnosis.
“I’ve tested positive for Covid-19,” tweetedAñez, who took power after Evo Morales was forced from the country last year. “I’m OK, I will work in isolation. Together, we will get through this.”

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The news comes after Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, announced on Tuesday that he had tested positive for coronavirus.

Cabello’s announcement came amid growing concern over Covid-19’s advance in Venezuela and the potential for its already collapsed health service to be overwhelmed by the pandemic.

Venezuela’s official Covid-19 figures - which many question - have so far been far lower than those of other countries in the region. While Brazil has recorded more than 68,000 deaths,Venezuelahas officially suffered just 75.

Venezuela has registered 8,010 confirmed cases while in Brazil there have been at least 1.7 million.

But on Wednesday, Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, warned the South American country was now witnessing the “real outbreak”.

Another top Chavista official, the governor of the western state of Zulia, also confirmed he had tested positive on Thursday night. “We are in battle and stable,” Omar Prieto tweeted.

Bolivia has so far recorded 1,577 Covid-19 deaths and nearly 43,000 cases.

Venezuelan socialist party chief Diosdado Cabello has announced that he is sick with Covid-19.

The man considered the second-most powerful person in Venezuela after President Nicolás Maduro shared the news Thursday on Twitter.

Cabello said, “Dear colleagues, I comply with informing that after having undergone the corresponding tests, I have been positive in Covid 19, since now I am isolated, complying with the indicated treatment, thanks for your good wishes, with high morale. We will win!!”

Venezuela has had fewer officially registered cases of the virus than much of Latin America, though the numbers have increased in recent weeks.

The nation is considered one of the least prepared countries in the world to confront the pandemic. Hospitals are routinely short on critical supplies like water, electricity and medicine.

The interim president of Bolivia, Jeanine Añez has just announced on Twitter that she has tested positive for coronavirus.

“I have tested positive for Covid19, I am fine, I will work from my isolation. Together, let’s get ahead,” she wrote:

Bolivia, with a population of 11.35m people, has 42,984 known cases of coronavirus and 1,577 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official figures.

Hi, Helen Sullivan with you now. I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours – get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

The British government has decided not to join a European Union coronavirus vaccine scheme because of concerns there could be costly delays in securing the vaccines, according to a report in The Daily Telegraph.

The European Commission is expected to be notified on Friday, the newspaper said.

UK business minister Alok Sharma is believed to have withdrawn from the plan after failing to get “sufficient assurance” that it would receive the number of vaccines it needs on time.

The officials believed that signing up to the scheme could delay the rollout of a successful vaccine in the UK by up to six months as talks on distribution took place, according to government sources.

The decision comes a week after officials in London and Brussels said Britain was in discussions with the EU about whether it would join a plan by the bloc to secure supplies of potential vaccines against Covid-19.

The front page of Friday’s UK edition of The Guardian.

Friday’s Daily Telegraph.

A selection of Friday’s UK newspapers now, starting with The Times.

Brazil’s death toll from Covid-19 has risen to 69,184 on Thursday, from 67,964 the previous day, the country’s health ministry said.

The country has registered 1,755,779 confirmed cases of the virus, up from 1,713,160 on Wednesday.

Quebec, Canada’s hardest-hit province from the coronavirus pandemic, said on Thursday it would crack down on bar crowding, following a recent outbreak at a suburban Montreal pub and reports of overcrowded nightclub floors.

Its health minister Christian Dubé said the province would now require bars to stop selling alcohol at midnight. Closing time is moved up to 1 a.m. from 3 a.m. Nightclub dance floors must remain free of dancers and bars will only be allowed to admit half capacity, he said.

The new requirements, which take effect on Friday, followed reports on social media of crowding in Montreal pubs after Quebec started easing restrictions last month.

The province accounts for more than half of Canada*s 106,434 cases and 8,737 deaths from the virus.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is in “good health” after testing positive for coronavirus earlier this week, his press office said.

“President Jair Bolsonaro, diagnosed with Covid-19 on (July) 7, is getting on well, without complications,” the statement said.

“He is in good health and continues to be monitored routinely by the medical team of the Presidency of the Republic.”