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South Asia and Latin America endured another turbulent week at the heart of the global coronavirus pandemic<\/strong>, while COVID-19 increasingly roiled the southern and western United States. Cases were rising fastest across South Asia<\/a>, where India stepped out of lockdown<\/a> even as cases swept past 300,000<\/a>: the fourth-highest case tally in the world, with more than 100,000 cases recorded in the past ten days<\/a>. Pakistan was forced to implement ‘smart lockdowns’<\/a> amid a record-breaking surge in cases<\/a>, and Bangladesh also suffered record infections and deaths<\/a>. In Latin America the caseload was already precariously high with sweeping fatalities, and Brazil led the way, as the country with the second-highest case tally now became the site of the second-most deaths<\/a>. Once the government of Jair Bolsonaro’s attempts at data suppression<\/a> were\u00a0upended by the Supreme Court<\/a>, the figures in Brazil showed more than 40,000 deaths and 800,000 cases<\/a>, as S\u00e3o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro still strived to open up<\/a>. Cases were also on the rise in Argentina<\/a>, Colombia<\/a>, Peru<\/a>, and Chile<\/a>, where more than 160,000 infections prompted a new health minister<\/a>, while Mexico exceeded 15,000 deaths<\/a>.<\/p>\n By the end of the working week infections across the United States had exceeded two million<\/a>, with let-ups in hard-hit New York<\/a> and New Jersey<\/a> as states in the south and west hastened the spread. The major states of Florida<\/a> and Texas<\/a> were reporting record highs in cases and hospitalisations, infections kept climbing in Alabama<\/a>, and on Friday coronavirus swept the south as North Carolina<\/a>, South Carolina<\/a>, Arkansas<\/a>, and Arizona<\/a> suffered record days. California was also witnessing a surge in cases, but the state proved reluctant to roll back a wave of business reopenings<\/a> and cited increased testing<\/a> as the curve passed 5,000 deaths<\/a>. So Friday brought the return of gyms, hotels, museums, and outdoor leisure activities<\/a>, while Hollywood production picked up the pace<\/a>. Entertainments though continued to play second fiddle across America in light of George Floyd’s death<\/a>. As demonstrations entered their third week<\/a>, Minneapolis planned to remodel its police department<\/a> and chokehold bans were touted from New York<\/a> to Houston<\/a> to L.A.<\/a>, before a funeral service in his hometown of Houston<\/a> finally laid Floyd to rest<\/a>. The death of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta prompted another outpouring<\/a>, as protests flourished in Los Angeles<\/a> and Brooklyn<\/a> and became entrenched in Seattle<\/a>, extending to London<\/a>, Paris<\/a>, parts of Africa<\/a> and beyond.<\/p>\n Africa was attending its own spike in cases, with signs of growth in Nigeria<\/a> and Egypt<\/a> outstripped by South Africa’s soaring infection rate<\/a>. Across the Middle East cases surged in Iran<\/a>, Qatar<\/a>, and Saudi Arabia<\/a>, which considered halting the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca<\/a>, and the crisis was ravaging war-torn Afghanistan<\/a> and Yemen<\/a>, but recoveries began surpassing infections in the United Arab Emirates<\/a>. After urging fun and preempting the end of the virus, cases began climbing precipitously in Israel<\/a>. Protesters in Sudan weighed restrictive measures against financial necessity<\/a>, while across the globe there were creeping signs of political normalcy. Singapore<\/a> and Russia<\/a> prepared to go the polls, long lines marked primary elections in Georgia<\/a>, and Donald Trump planned his first rally since March<\/a>, with attendees assuming all the risks of coronavirus<\/a>. The pandemic continued to impact sporting and cultural events, as the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay awards were cancelled in the Philippines<\/a>, while Japan shifted the starting blocks and looked towards a simplified Summer Olympics<\/a>.<\/p>\n Indonesia emerged as the outlier across Asia Pacific, as daily cases surpassed 1,000 for the first time<\/a> and continued to rise<\/a>, although the spike was tracked by an increase in testing and tracing<\/a>. By contrast the recovery of the final patient in New Zealand saw the country become the first major nation to declare itself virus-free<\/a>. Vanishing local cases in Australia<\/a> saw the states of Victoria and New South Wales ease more restrictions<\/a>. Japan, South Korea, and China anxiously tracked small clusters around Tokyo<\/a>, Seoul<\/a>, and a food market in Beijing<\/a>. A divided Europe saw newfound stability in Italy<\/a>, Spain<\/a>, the United Kingdom<\/a>, and France<\/a>, where Emmanuel Macron hailed a first victory over the virus<\/a>, while cases were spiking in the eastern states of Poland<\/a>, Ukraine<\/a>, and Bulgaria<\/a>, and Sweden remained cast out from the Nordic travel loop<\/a>. Meanwhile in Russia the virus was subtly relinquishing its hold, with Moscow reopening<\/a> as cases across the country stretched past 500,000<\/a>, although high mortality in April<\/a> and May<\/a> raised new questions around the death rate.<\/p>\n A study by Imperial College London suggested that lockdowns across Europe had saved more than three million lives<\/a>. In Bergamo, the epicentre of the virus in Italy, a sample survey implied the presence of antibodies in more than half of the province<\/a>. Infection rates and antibodies were also the talk of the town in Tehran<\/a> and Moscow<\/a>, while the World Health Organization muddied the waters around asymptomatic infection<\/a>. As experts urged face masks to prevent a second wave<\/a>, research focused on vaccine candidates. The American biotech company Moderna planned for phase three trials<\/a>, while AstraZeneca signed a deal with an alliance of France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy for 400 million doses of a vaccine currently under development at the University of Oxford<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meatpacking plants remained hotspots in the United States<\/a>, BAME communities were being disproportionately impacted by the virus in England<\/a>, and a housing complex in the German city of G\u00f6ttingen faced quarantine<\/a> after an outbreak which was allegedly traced to a hookah bar and shared smoking. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development warned that the world economy would contract by at least six percent in 2020<\/a>, with the major European economies set to suffer the sharpest contractions. Britain’s economy had already slumped by more than twenty percent<\/a>, India teetered on the verge of an economic crisis<\/a>, Wall Street slouched to its worst week since March<\/a>, and Japan was forced to enact a record extra budget<\/a>. While Greece leapt ahead<\/a> and Spain lagged behind<\/a>, the expectation across the European Union was for internal travel to resume by Monday<\/a> as the zone looked to revive a shattered tourism industry.<\/p>\n