LIVE - Coronavirus: Spain exceeds 500,000 cases

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The coronavirus epidemic continues to progress again and again at the global level.

Monday, it is Spain which crossed a new symbolic milestone, with more than 500,000 cases detected.

India has also become the second most affected country in terms of number of cases, behind the United States and ahead of Brazil.

But it is the world of sport that is particularly affected at the moment.

Kylian Mbappé tested positive and had to leave the Blues, while Roland Garros announced more drastic conditions for his tournament.

Ads that did not convince world number one Ashleigh Barty to go to Paris.

Follow the evolution of the situation live.

The information to remember:

• Spain has passed the 500,000 mark

• In France too, the epidemic continues to progress.

  Already 28 schools had to be closed

• The organizers of Roland-Garros have announced a tough health protocol.

  But the world number one won't come

Spain exceeds 500,000 cases

These are symbolic bars that are regularly crossed and which show that the coronavirus epidemic continues to progress.

Spain, a European country among the most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, has thus exceeded the bar of 500,000 diagnosed cases, according to the latest report published on Monday according to the report of the Ministry of Health.

Since the start of the pandemic, the country of 47 million inhabitants has recorded 525,549 cases, which represents, compared to its population, a proportion approximately twice as large as that of France or Italy, according to an AFP calculation based on official sources.

In the past two weeks, the country has detected an average of 7 to 8,000 cases per day, of which about a third are in the region of the capital Madrid, epicenter of the epidemic as in the spring.

Circulation still active in France, concern for schools

In France too, the circulation of the virus is still active.

More than 4,000 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in France in the past 24 hours, according to data from the Directorate General of Health (DGS) on Monday.

This figure is down from the previous three days, when new cases had risen between 7,000 and nearly 9,000.

The positivity rate (share of positive cases, among all people tested over 7 days) continues to increase at the same time: it reached 5.1% on Monday, against 4.9% on Sunday.

Twenty-five new deaths were recorded in hospitals, bringing the total to 20,250.

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But it is in schools that the situation worries.

On Monday evening, 28 schools and 262 classes were closed in France due to cases of Covid-19, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on BFM-TV on Monday.

At the end of the week, there were 22 closed establishments out of a little over 60,000 in France, and around a hundred classes.

"This is the kind of thing that we expected", "it is the necessary corollary of the prudence that we have", commented the minister, adding that the figure would be "probably higher in the next days".

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Mbappé positive, Roland-Garros loses the world number one

After having already withdrawn from the US Open because of the epidemic, the world's number one tennis player, Australia Ashleigh Barty, who won Roland Garros last year, has given up going to Paris, citing " health risks ", while a sharp rebound in the number of coronavirus cases has been observed in France in recent days.

Postponed to the fall due to the pandemic, Roland-Garros must start on September 27 with a reduced wing, a masked audience, and players confined in two hotels in the area and regularly subjected to tests.

On the football side, the star of the France team Kylian Mbappé, tested positive for Covid-19, had to forfeit the closed-door match against Croatia scheduled for Tuesday evening in Saint-Denis, near Paris.

His teammates Paul Pogba and Houssem Aouar, who had contracted the virus at the end of August, also missed their summons to the world champion team.

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All the same for sports lovers: the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics intend to maintain the competition in 2021. Despite the uncertainties, a senior official of the International Olympic Committee said Monday that the Tokyo Games, postponed to 2021, will be would go well next year "with or without" coronavirus.

"It will be the Games that will have defeated the Covid, the light at the end of the tunnel," John Coates told AFP the president of the IOC coordination committee for the 2020 Olympics.

India second most affected country, more than 890,000 dead worldwide

India became the second country in the world on Monday after the United States with the highest number of Covid-19 cases and overtakes Brazil.

The second most populous country on the planet with 1.3 billion inhabitants, India is hit hard by the pandemic which has killed more than 880,000 people worldwide since the end of December, according to a count established by AFP from official data.

On Monday, India has totaled 4.2 million infections since the start of the crisis, Brazil 4.14 million and the United States 6.29 million.

For deaths, it arrives with 71,642 dead behind the United States (189,618) and Brazil (126,960) among the three countries most bereaved in the world by the virus.

But many experts believe the actual numbers to be higher in India, arguing that testing is insufficient and death tolls go unrecorded.