Covid-19 - Global confirmed cases pass 2.5 millions

Coronavirus live news: global confirmed cases pass 2.5 millions but Italy sees first significant fall in infections.

Singapore extends lockdown after cases rise; Donald Trump signals immigration ban; Oktoberfest cancelled; US oil market collapses.

At least 2.5 million people have now been infected with the coronavirus, researchers at Johns Hopkins University say, while more than 170,000 are known to have died worldwide.
UK hospital deaths rose by 823, according to the Department for Health and Social Care, taking the total to 17,337. Official figures also show that Covid-19 fatalities in care homes in England and Walesmore than quadrupled in a week; rising to 1,043.
A team from the University of Oxford will begin trialling a vaccineon people from Thursday. The UK’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, says that the UK government has made £20m available to the team to accelerate their efforts, as well as making £22m available to researchers at Imperial to support their phase-two trials.
Italy recorded its first significant fall in infections, with the number of people currently infected with the virus down by 528 to 107,709. They country reported 534 new deaths on Tuesday; 80 more than Monday, bringing the death toll to 24,648.
The UK’s choice to stay out of a EU ventilator scheme was “political decision” said Sir Simon McDonald, the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary, challenging previous claims that the UK did not take part due to missed emails.
The UK government’s PPE claims came under scrutiny from the leader of the opposition Labour party, Sir Keir Starmer, who claimed there is an “increasing gap” between government claims on PPE and reality.
Mexico’s government said the country had entered the “most serious stage” of its outbreak. The country’s deputy health minister, Hugo López-Gatell, said: “We are in the phase of rapid spread where a large number of infections and hospitalisations are accumulated.”
The Pamplona bull run was cancelled. The annual event, where hundreds of daredevils play a risky and controversial game of catch-me-if-you-can with half-tonne fighting bulls, was supposed to take place in Spain in July.