What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

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Wed, 07 Oct 2020 - 10:43 GMT

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Wed, 07 Oct 2020 - 10:43 GMT

People wearing protective face masks pass a sign at Waterloo station during the morning rush hour, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in London, Britain, September 23, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

People wearing protective face masks pass a sign at Waterloo station during the morning rush hour, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in London, Britain, September 23, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

(Reuters) - Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

Trump calls off aid talks

U.S. President Donald Trump, still being treated for COVID-19, abruptly ended talks with Democrats on an economic aid package on Tuesday, drawing criticism from presidential rival Joe Biden that he was abandoning Americans in the midst of a pandemic.

Along with Biden, congressional Democrats and some Republicans blasted Trump, saying more was needed to help the millions who have lost their jobs.

“The president turned his back on you,” Biden said in a Twitter post.

India reported 72,049 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, dropping from the daily highs of last month in a sign infections were peaking for now, officials and experts said.

India leads the world in the average number of new infections and is expected to overtake the United States over the next several weeks as the country with the world’s largest number of cases.

But since it hit a single-day high of 97,894 new cases on Sept. 17, the country has reported a downward trend with 75,909 daily cases on an average, according to a Reuters tally.

A Chinese experimental coronavirus vaccine being developed by the Institute of Medical Biology under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences was shown to be safe in an early stage clinical trial, researchers said.

In a Phase 1 trial of 191 healthy participants aged between 18 and 59, vaccination with the group’s experimental shot showed no severe adverse reactions.

The most common adverse reactions reported by the trial participants were mild pain, slight fatigue and redness, itching and swelling at the injection site. The candidate also induced immune response.

Czech rise in cases fastest in Europe

The Czech Republic reported a record 4,457 new coronavirus cases in a single day, as a spike in infections over the past month is now rising at Europe’s fastest pace.

The daily rise in new COVID-19 cases, recorded on Tuesday, surpassed a previous record of 3,794 to bring the total number of cases recorded since March to 90,022 - a fourfold increase since Aug. 25.

Hospitalisations have soared tenfold in that period to add strain on the healthcare system.

Britain’s COVID-19 testing system, already struggling with a surge in new cases, was facing fresh disruption on Wednesday after Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche said problems at a new warehouse had delayed the dispatch of some products.

Roche is one of the main suppliers of diagnostic tests to Britain’s National Health Service Test and Trace programme, which only days ago was hit by a technical glitch that delayed the reporting of 15,000 positive results.

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