The economic consequences of the coronavirus crisis continue to be felt around the world, where almost all countries are in recession.

Despite the progression of the disease, which has now infected at least 25.5 million people, many students returned to school on Tuesday.

Follow the evolution of the situation live.

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This is a first for 30 years.

Australia announced on Wednesday that it had entered an economic recession after decades of growth, further illustration of the global impact of the health crisis.

Now, more than 25.5 million people have been or are affected by the new coronavirus around the world.

But even if the disease progresses, the return to school took place Tuesday in many countries.

Follow the evolution of the situation live

The information to remember:

  • Australia has joined the long list of countries that have returned to recession because of the coronavirus

  • Now more than 25.5 million cases have been recorded worldwide, a number probably underestimated

  • Back to school took place on Tuesday in many countries, including France, under necessarily special conditions.

Australia joins the list of countries in recession

It had therefore been three decades since Australia had experienced such a situation.

On Wednesday, for the first time in thirty years, the country announced that it had officially entered recession, after a contraction of almost 7% of its GDP in the second quarter, following a decline of 0.3% in Q1.

It is the sharpest quarterly contraction ever suffered by the Australian economy, whose extraordinary growth was not even interrupted by the global financial crisis of 2008, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said.

Still on the economic front, after India on Monday, Brazil unveiled on Tuesday a historic drop in its GDP in the second quarter, a plunge endured by almost all the major world economies following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Brazilian GDP "is now at the same level as at the end of 2009, at the heart of the international financial crisis", explained the IBGE Institute of Statistics.

The only lightening in the grayness came from the second largest economy in the world: China avoided the recession by containing the epidemic.

GDP rebounded 11.5% in the second quarter, after falling 10% in the first.

Germany, for its part, expects a recession that is less bad than expected in 2020, its Minister of the Economy Peter Altmaier said on Tuesday.

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At least 25.5 million cases and 850,000 deaths

Globally, the pandemic has an official toll of more than 25.5 million cases, a figure that is certainly underestimated, especially in countries like India, which now records the most new cases per day.

At least 851,321 people lost their lives.

The United States, where the health response remains fragmented and uneven from one state to another, has for its part exceeded six million cases.

The US death toll of more than 184,589 is expected to exceed 200,000 deaths during the month of September, according to epidemic models, even if the White House seeks to limit the number of tests to minimize the epidemic.

In Brazil, which remains the second worst-hit country behind the United States, with more than 122,500 dead, an infected indigenous leader, Raoni Metuktire, is hospitalized.

Colombia, for its part, announced on Tuesday that it had crossed the threshold of 20,000 dead in nearly six months, just as the government eases measures to contain the pandemic.

Finally in France, 4,982 new cases of coronavirus infection have been recorded over the past 24 hours, according to figures released Tuesday evening by Public Health France.

The test positivity rate (proportion of the number of people tested positive in relation to the total number of people tested) continues to increase steadily: 4.3% over the last seven days, against 4.2% on Monday, 4.1% on Sunday and 3.6% last Wednesday.

In 24 hours, 19 additional patients have died in France, bringing the total to 30,661 since the start of the epidemic. 

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Back to school under the sign of the mask

Millions of children have returned to school, mask on their face and precautionary instructions in the program to prevent schools from becoming hotbeds of the virus.

In Europe, young French, Belgians, Russians and Ukrainians returned to classrooms on Tuesday, after their German, Northern Irish or Scottish comrades.

The start of the school year, on the other hand, was postponed by a week to September 14 in Greece, all city dwellers "not yet returned from vacation", announced Greek Education Minister Niki Kerameus.

In French schools, wearing a mask is compulsory for teachers and students from 11 years old.

In Greece it will be required from kindergarten.

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Back to school: despite the mask, the students resume their habits

In Belgium, Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès deemed it "fundamental" that children can resume school life "as normal as possible", justifying maintaining the start of the school year on September 1st.