UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations’ counterterrorism chief says a 350% increase in phishing websites was reported in the first quarter of the year and many of them targeted hospitals and health care systems, hindering their response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Vladimir Voronkov told the UN Security Council Thursday that the rise of phishing sites was a component of “a significant accumulation of cybercrime in recent months.” He said global experts still do not fully perceive “the effect and consequences of the pandemic on global peace and security, and on components on organized crime and terrorism.”
Voronkov also warned that extremists were taking advantage of the disruptions and economic difficulties caused by the pandemic to sow concern and department while seeking to recruit followers.
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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VIRUS BRUTE:
– Deaths in the United States are expected to succeed in approximately 300,000 as of December 1
– Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine tested for the virus
– Dr. Fauci says that the public protects the slow virus; expects a vaccine in 2021
– Congressional negotiations on a massive aid package opposed to COVID-19 are still ongoing. Leaders are fast reaching their deadline for an agreement on Friday.
– A newsletter informing others in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, about the coronavirus pandemic moves some readers, thanks to the weekly contributions of the city’s poet laureate.
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Track the AP pandemic in http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERE’S WHAT’S GOING ON:
MELBOURNE, Australia – The fitness director of the Australian state of Victoria said the rate of coronavirus infection in the most affected state was “relatively stable” last week.
Victoria recorded 450 new instances shown and 11 kills on Friday. The number of cases over 24 hours decreases from a record 725 infections reported a week earlier. Health Medical Director Brett Sutton called the most recent count “reasonable,” adding that “we’re sitting between 400 and 500 cases a day” during the following week.
Tony Blakely, an epidemiologist at the University of Melbourne, said mandatory masking had begun to slow the spread of coronavirus. He says the infection rate began to stabilize at the end of July, a week after Melbourne’s citizens risked fines if they left their homes without masks.
A six-week blockade order came as far as Thursday in the city.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tweeted that he tested negative for a coronavirus infection after positive the previous Thursday before the meeting with President Donald Trump.
The governor’s workplace said he passed the first verification under popular protocol before meeting with Trump at a Cleveland airport. He had planned to enroll the president on a stopover at the Whirlpool Corp. plant. in northwest Ohio.
DeWine has no symptoms returned to Columbus before Trump landed.
The governor returned to his quarantined home in Cedarville for 14 days, tweeting on Thursday night that he and his wife, Fran, had tested negative.
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BEIJING – The Chinese capital reports its first new case of COVID-19 broadcast locally in a week. State media said Friday that the case in Beijing was linked to a recent outbreak in the northern port city of Dalian. Beijing has recorded only a few new scattered cases since the end of the June outbreak connected to a wholesale food market.
China’s northwestern region, Xinjiang, has 26 new instances as the government continues to fight to stop an epidemic through restrictions and the closure of some residential areas.
Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous city reports 95 new cases and 3 more deaths. The city of 7.5 million other people has limited food inside and calls for that mask to be used in all public places.
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MEXICO CITY – Mexico has surpassed 50,000 coronavirus deaths with the latest report of 819 deaths just shown.
The Department of Health’s report on Thursday raised the death toll in the country to 50,517. It is the third highest number of deaths in the world, the United States and Brazil.
The branch reported 6590 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the cumulative total to 462690.
The government admits that the number of deaths and instances is underestimated, in part because of the incredibly low testing point in Mexico. To date, Mexico has conducted only about 1,050,000 tests, less than one consistent with one hundred people.
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TOPEKA, Kan. – A spokeswoman for Kansas Governor Laura Kelly said the governor would go through a coronavirus check because she met with the president of the State’s House of Representatives who tested positive for an infection last month.
House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr. is Kansas’ top senior official known to have been infected. He informed his Republican house colleagues in a letter after Tuesday’s primary, saying he was hospitalized for a week in July but “was getting better.”
The governor’s spokesman, Sam Coleman, said the governor had no idea Ryckman had tested positive until Thursday. He says the governor will be tested “as soon as we can put him in his place.”
Ryckman says he tested positive on July 13 and began to revel in the symptoms that led to his short hospitalization. He says he is no longer contagious when he attended a public assembly with other legislative leaders and Kelly on July 29.
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SAN FRANCISCO – A U.S. federal approval ruling ordered immigration officials to conduct weekly coronavirus tests on more than a hundred men detained at a California detention center.
Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco issued the temporary restraining order Thursday.
A lawyer told the San Francisco Chronicle that nearly two dozen inmates tested positive for COVID-19 at the Mesa Verde Detention Center in Bakersfield.
The opinion given on that ICE has intentionally moved away from universal evidence for fear that the company will have to put in place shameful protective measures.
The Chronicle says ICE didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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JOHANNESBURG – South Africa reports more than 8,300 new cases of coronavirus, while the country with the fifth number of cases in the world has 10,000 deaths.
New figures from the Ministry of Health push the total number on the African continent above the one million mark.
South Africa accounts for more than all virus instances in Africa, with 529,877.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize expressed her cautious optimism this week as the rate of new instances declined. But he warned that surveillance will need to continue “to avoid a new wave.”
COVID-19 deaths in South Africa are recently 9,298, with more than new deaths reported.
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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah will no longer recommend that schools allow students who have been exposed to the coronavirus to come to class following pushback from doctors and educators.
The state issued a new advice Thursday that any student or instructor who has been in close contact with a displayed case be quarantined at their home for 14 days.
Rule replacement comes a week after Gov. Gary Herbert and fitness officials announced a superseded quarantine option that would have allowed students exposed to symptoms to attend school.
Herbert also announced Thursday that the procedure for implementing mask authorizations at the point would still be simplified and would no longer require state approval.
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HELENA, Mount Montana Gov. Steve Bullock said counties will be able to vote by mail in November to restrict the coronavirus.
The order issued on Thursday. The Montana Secretaries and Registrars’ Association and the Montana County Association had suggested to the governor last month that he allow the option to vote on general election by mail.
Republicans have criticized the ordinance of Democratic pastors, saying the electorate has the right to move to polling stations if that’s how they need to vote. A Republican official said that “if Montanans can get to the grocery store safely, they can safely move to their polling station to vote on Election Day.”
Bullock issued a similar order allowing the number one elections to be held by mail on June 2. This primacy has noticed a record voter turnout.
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OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Gov. Charlie Hannema’s spokesman on Thursday said Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, the country’s first governor to test positive for coronavirus, became engurised when he kissed two of Tulsa’s friends.
At least one of the two men, whom Hannema did not identify, was positive for the virus. The assembly took place on July 10 in Oklahoma City and was not similar to Stitt’s participation in a June 20 election rally for President Donald Trump in Tulsa.
Stitt announced on July 15 that he was quarantined after testing positive.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported 41,401 cases of coronavirus and 593 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, a buildup of 837 cases shown and 10 deaths from those reported Wednesday.
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CHICAGO – Illinois reported that nearly 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 showed that public fitness officials continued to warn Thursday that there could be a reversal of the state’s progress in opposition to the coronavirus if things don’t change.
The Illinois Department of Public Health has announced 1,953 cases shown, since May expired, and 21 deaths. Overall, the state reported that 188,424 showed cases of COVID-19 and 7,594 deaths.
Public fitness officials say 41,686 tests have been conducted in the last 24 hours and that the average seven-day rate for testing is 4%.
The numbers come when Chicago Public Schools, the third largest school district in the country, abandoned plans to offer in-person education this week and will begin the school year with distance education only.
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LONDON – Britain has announced that travellers from Andorra, Belgium and the Bahamas will be quarantined for two weeks from Saturday, following a build-up of coronavirus cases in all 3 locations.
The authorities say that COVID-19 instances in Belgium have quadrupled since mid-July and that in Andorra, new instances consistent with the week have increased five-fold in the same constant period. They added that the Bahamas has also noticed a significant increase in case rates.
Officials now say all travel to Belgium, Andorra and the Bahamas should not go ahead, unless they are essential trips.
Britain also announced Thursday that it had added Brunei and Malaysia to its list of countries, meaning that quarantine is not required upon arrival of those locations, after a minimum in the cases shown there.
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INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana citizens who struggled to pay for the costs of rent or application for the coronavirus pandemic have an additional week before the end of state protections opposed to evictions and application closures, despite a recent investigation that found that more than 40% of the state’s tenants are unable to pay their rent.
Governor Eric Holcomb announced Wednesday his goal of allowing the suspension of the deportation of rental homes in the state and his ban on disconnecting the public that expires on August 14.
The Republican governor said others who are behind their expenses without delay touch their owners or utilities to expand payment plans, or touch state agencies to get help to offset their payments.
Statewide, about 44% of contracting families cannot afford rent and are at risk of eviction, according to a July 31 investigation through investment bank StoutIus Ross, LLC.
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ATHENS, Greece – The Greek government imposed a 10-day offensive against public meetings on the coastal island of Poros and reduced the opening hours of the island’s restaurants, bars and clubs due to a national increase in COVID-19 infections.
Health officials said a total of 153 new infections showed that they had been recorded across the country in the more than 24 hours, the number in weeks.
During the next ten days, the use of the mask will be mandatory in all outdoor and indoor public spaces on Poros, an island near the southern Peloponnese peninsula. Restaurants, bars and clubs must be closed between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., while public meetings outdoors and indoors, in public and personal spaces, should be limited to nine people. And meetings such as parties, flea markets, open-air fairs or devout processions are prohibited.
Greek media reported that thirteen new infections have been reported on the island.
Greece has recorded more than 5,000 infections shown and 210 deaths.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A lawyer has said the city of Anchorage will sue a local company for violating an ordinance that prohibits indoor food in restaurants and breweries because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Anchorage Daily News reported that attorney Kate Vogel said Anchorage will seek a state court court order order ordering Kriner’s Diner to close service and comply with the emergency order.
This will be the first time a municipality has sued a company for violating an order since the pandemic began in March.
The restaurant continued dine-in service this week after the order went into effect Monday, and was given a stop-work order from the city Tuesday.