KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

Pos   /   Country   /   New Daily cases   /   Total Deaths   /        Daily Deaths /           Active Cases   /           Deaths/1M Pop

               World    8,24,653              /             31,48,010            /             14,686   /             1,87,14,017               /             403.9

1             USA        51,003   /             5,87,368              /             869        /             68,19,135            /               1,766

2             India      3,62,902              /             2,01,165              /             3,285     /             29,79,768               /             145

3             Brazil     76,085   /             3,95,324              /             3,120     /             10,58,775            /               1,849

4             France   30,317   /             1,03,603              /             333        /             9,88,391              /               1,584

5             Turkey   43,301   /             39,057   /             346        /             5,04,262              /             459

6             Iran        20,963   /             70,532   /             462        /             4,60,471              /             831

7             Italy       10,404   /             1,19,912              /             373        /             4,48,149              /               1,986

8             Ukraine 7,915     /             42,950   /             432        /             3,98,469              /             987

9             Germany              19,009   /             82,698   /             354        /             3,12,680              /               984

10           Argentina            25,495   /             62,599   /             512        /             2,79,350              /               1,375

11           Russia    8,053     /             1,08,980              /             392        /             2,67,767              /               747

12           Mexico  1,143     /             2,15,113              /             166        /             2,60,632              /               1,654

13           Hungary               1,253     /             26,984   /             183        /             2,54,103              /               2,799

14           Poland   5,709     /             65,897   /             460        /             2,35,101              /               1,743

15           Spain     7,665     /             77,855   /             117        /             2,31,312              /               1,665

16           Netherlands        5,337     /             17,093   /             31           /             2,20,206              /               996

17           Sweden                /             13,968   /             32           /             1,59,782              /               1,376

18           Honduras             413        /             5,193     /             52           /             1,24,313              /               518

19           Colombia             17,578   /             72,235   /             436        /             1,15,825              /               1,407

20           Belgium               1,670     /             24,065   /             41           /             1,09,984              /               2,069

SRI LANKA CABINET CLEARS PROPOSAL FOR BURQA BAN

Sri Lanka’s Cabinet on Tuesday cleared a proposal to ban all forms of face veils in public places “due to national security concerns”.

“The Cabinet has approved the proposal…it will now go to the legal draftsmen and then be brought to parliament,” cabinet spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told the weekly media conference.

The announcement comes at a time when the government is urging the public to wear face masks — dozens of violators have been arrested — to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and a likely third wave in Sri Lanka.

The proposal to ban the burqa was announced in March by Minister of Public Security Sarath Weerasekara, weeks before the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Sri Lanka. However, the government then clarified that it was only a proposal and there was no move to implement it in a hurry – a position that was widely interpreted as Colombo’s attempt to garner support of Muslim countries that had a vote at the Council.

The proposed ban on face veils, seen as targeting the burqa worn by Muslim women, had triggered concern domestically and among international actors. The Pakistani envoy in Colombo in a tweet then said the likely ban “will only serve as injury to the feelings of ordinary Sri Lankan Muslims and Muslims across the globe”.

Following the Easter Sunday terror attacks in 2019, that killed nearly 280 people in coordinated serial blasts, Sri Lanka used emergency regulations to temporarily ban the burqa.

CITING 'STUNNING PROGRESS' ON CORONAVIRUS, BIDEN LIFTS OUTDOOR MASK GUIDELINES

Fully vaccinated people can safely engage in outdoor activities like walking and hiking without wearing masks but should continue to use face-coverings in public spaces where they are required, US health regulators and President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.

The updated health advice comes as more than half of all adults in the United States have now received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Biden said the new advice was a direct result of steps the country had take to fight the coronavirus.

"We’ve made stunning progress because of all of you,” Biden said, adding that Covid-19 cases are "down dramatically." Deaths among senior citizens have dropped by 80%, as vaccinations have increased, he said.

"The release of these new guidelines is a first step at helping fully vaccinated Americans resume activities they had stopped doing because of the pandemic, while being mindful of the potential risk of transmitting the virus to others," the CDC said.

New Covid-19 cases have dropped 16% in the last week as the US surpassed 140 million people having received at least one shot of authorized vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech , Moderna or Johnson & Johnson's one-dose vaccine.

This was the biggest percentage drop in weekly new cases since February, according to a Reuters analysis of state and county data.

AIRSTRIKES BY MYANMAR JUNTA AS GUERRILLAS CAPTURE GOVT BASE

Ethnic Karen guerrillas said they captured a Myanmar army base on Tuesday near the border with Thailand, representing a morale-boosting action for those opposing the military's takeover of the country's civilian government in February.

Myanmar’s military launched airstrikes several hours later on villages in territory controlled by the Karen forces, said a guerrilla spokesman, a senior Thai official and a relief worker.

A spokesman for the Karen National Union, the minority's main political group seeking greater autonomy from Myanmar's central government, said its armed wing attacked the base at 5 am and burnt it down just after dawn.

Casualty figures were not yet known, the KNU’s head of foreign affairs, Padoh Saw Taw Nee, said in a text message. There was no immediate comment from Myanmar’s military government.

The KNU, which controls territory in eastern Myanmar near the Thai border, is a close ally of the resistance movement against the military takeover that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Its armed wing is called the Karen National Liberation Army.

Video shot from the Thai side of the border showed flames rising from the government position on the banks of the Salween river amid the sound of heavy gunfire. The river marks the border with Thailand.

BRAZIL REGULATOR REJECTS SPUTNIK VACCINE; RUSSIA CRIES FOUL

Brazil's health regulator cited safety concerns while rejecting several states' requests to import almost 30 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, prompting criticism from the Russian government.

The five-person board of the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency unanimously decided late Monday that consistent and trustworthy data required was lacking for approval of the requests from 10 States, according to a statement. Another four States and two cities have also sought authorization to import the vaccine.

The agency, known as Anvisa, said there were faults in all clinical studies of the vaccine's development, as well as absent or insufficient data.

The agency statement said that analysis indicated that the adenovirus on which the vaccine is based has the capacity to replicate, which could cause sickness or death, particularly among those with low immunity or respiratory problems. The Russian fund overseeing the vaccine's marketing globally denied the claim.

“We will never permit, without the existence of due proof required, millions of Brazilians to be exposed to products without the due proof of their quality, safety and efficacy or, at minimum, in the face of the grave situation that we're living through, a favorable cost-benefit relationship,” Anvisa's president Antônio Barra Torres said in the statement.

Anvisa's decision doesn't affect a separate request from Brazilian company Uniao Quimica for emergency use authorization of Sputnik V produced locally, according to an emailed statement from Anvisa's press office.

Still, it came as a blow to Russia's efforts to promote worldwide adoption of the vaccine, whose exports have helped it regain diplomatic footholds in countries where relationships had languished.

“We need additional information on what this lack (of data) means, because there's already more than enough data," Kremlin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a daily briefing.

CANADA REPORTS FIRST DEATH LINKED TO ASTRAZENECA COVID-19 VACCINE

A 54-year woman has died in Canada after receiving the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, the first fatality linked to the drug in the country, provincial authorities announced Tuesday.

"I'm sad to know that a healthy 54-year-old woman... died because she was vaccinated. It's hard to take," Francois Legault, the premier of Quebec, told a news conference.

The French-speaking province's chief public health officer Horacio Arruda said life-saving treatments did not work and the unidentified patient died of cerebral thrombosis after being vaccinated.

But he cautioned that the death should not change the government's recommendations to use the vaccine for those over 45 years old.

"We knew about serious complications, there was one in 100,000 (doses administered). But we must remember that, to date, we have had more than 400,000 people who have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca," Quebec health minister Christian Dube added.

As of last Friday, just over 1.1 million AstraZeneca doses had been administered nationwide.