European Union leaders meet at the summit in Brussels on Friday to discuss the recovery of the economy in the Old Continent hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which continues to progress with a new record of contamination in the United States and now one million people infected in India, and two in Brazil. Follow the situation live.
The main information to remember:
- European Union supports economy at summit in Brussels
- New record of cases detected in the United States in 24 hours
- India has passed the one million confirmed cases mark on its territory, Brazil that of two million
- Russia accused of attempting to steal information about vaccine
The EU at the bedside of its economy
It is a summit of two, even three days, which opens Friday in Brussels, with a simple but heavy challenge: to save the economy of the Old Continent. The virus has seriously affected the world economy and that of the EU has not been spared with tens of thousands of jobs in danger. On the negotiating table: a recovery plan of 750 billion euros, made up of 250 billion loans, and especially grants up to 500 billion, which will not have to be reimbursed by the beneficiary States.
It is the first time that the 27 EU heads of state and government have all met in Brussels since the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe and the containment measures that followed, forcing them to speak remotely by videoconference. But the recovery plan is not unanimous and negotiations between the 27 promise to be long and difficult. This extraordinary summit may not be the last.
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Record in the United States, symbolic caps exceeded in India and Brazil
At the same time, the new coronavirus continues to spread, the United States, the most mourning country in the world, recording a new contamination record on Thursday with more than 68,000 cases in 24 hours, announced Thursday. The state of Florida, center of the epidemic in the country, also reported Thursday its highest number of deaths in 24 hours: 156. The United States has been facing since the end of June a very strong resurgence of the virus, in particular in the South and West.
Latin America and the Caribbean are still affected, notably Brazil, which has 76,688 dead and crossed the two million contamination mark on Thursday, the second highest death toll in the world behind the United States. Colombia for its part crossed the threshold of 6,000 dead on Thursday and had its daily record of contamination with 8,037 new infections.
As for Asia, a regional official of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has sounded the alarm, saying that "the Covid-19 is spreading at an alarming rate in South Asia, home to a quarter of humanity. " In fact, India passed the milestone of one million reported cases on Friday, local authorities increasing health restrictions and reconfinements to contain the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. Third nation in the world in number of contaminations listed, after the United States and Brazil, the Asian giant on Friday counted 25,602 dead for 1,003,832 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.
In total, more than 13.6 million people have contracted the disease and at least 585,750 deaths have been recorded worldwide, according to a report stopped Thursday at 19:00 GMT. Italy crossed the symbolic barrier of 35,000 Covid-19 deaths on Thursday.
Russia singled out
Britain, the United States and Canada accused Russia of wanting to steal research on a Covid-19 vaccine on Thursday. They claimed that the Russian intelligence services were behind computer attacks aimed at capturing research, an accusation strongly denied by the Kremlin. According to the British government agency responsible for cybersecurity, a group of Russian hackers have attacked British, Canadian and American organizations.