Paris (AFP)

New reports, new measures and highlights: an update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.

- Record recession in the UK -

The UK, hit by the coronavirus crisis, suffered a record 20.4% drop in GDP in the second quarter and, in the first six months of the year, its worst recession on record, according to the Office National Statistics (ONS).

- Express reconfinement in Auckland -

Health officials were quick to order the containment of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, where four probable cases of coronavirus have been identified, in addition to the four that were announced on Tuesday.

A total of 1.5 million residents are required to stay at home for three days from Wednesday, and millions more worried about the return of Covid-19 to a country that previously did not 'had recorded more local contamination for 102 days.

- Quarantine in Italy -

Several regions of Italy - Puglia and Campania (south) - will impose a quarantine on returning travelers from Spain, Greece and Malta considered at risk for the spread of the coronavirus, the Italian press reported on Wednesday. Sicily is preparing to apply the same measure, local authorities said.

- The Brussels region is hidden away -

After the city of Brussels, the wearing of the compulsory mask in public spaces extends from Wednesday to the whole of the Brussels region.

The generalization of the mask in the 19 municipalities of the region is explained by the crossing of the threshold of 50 daily contaminations per 100,000 inhabitants (more than 600 new infections per day in this territory of approximately 1.2 million inhabitants), according to the regional government.

- More than 20 million cases -

More than 20 million cases of Covid-19 have been officially identified worldwide, more than half of which are in America.

The pandemic has killed at least 743,199 people around the world since the end of December, according to a report established by AFP on Wednesday at 11:00 GMT.

The United States is the most bereaved country (164,545 deaths), ahead of Brazil (103,026 dead), Mexico (53,929), the United Kingdom (46,526) and India (46,091).

- Shifted sports calendar -

The Paris marathon, scheduled for November 15, is canceled, announced Wednesday ASO (Amaury Sport Organization), the organizing company of the event.

Initially scheduled for April 5, the race had been postponed twice due to a health crisis.

Also because of the pandemic, the qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup and the 2023 Asian Cup scheduled for October and November are postponed to dates to be specified later, according to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and Fifa .

- Deserted Versailles -

Attendance at Versailles "collapses" in the absence of foreign tourists, with only 10,000 visitors per day at the moment, three times less than usual, announced Wednesday Catherine Pégard, president of the public establishment of the castle of Versailles.

"Financially, we do not find it at all", she lamented, adding that the establishment which reopened to the public on June 6 had "lost 45 million" euros since confinement.

burx-kd / mw / mba

© 2020 AFP