Coronavirus: What's happening around the world on Sunday

The latest:

India records nearly 64,000 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours.
New Zealand marks 100 days without community transmission of COVID-19.
More than 2,700 active cases in Australia’s Victoria state have no known source.
U.K. leader says keeping schools closed longer than necessary is ‘intolerable.’

Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, reported its deadliest day of the COVID-19 outbreak on Sunday, with 17 people dying, as police thwarted a planned anti-mask rally in the capital of Melbourne.

Victoria, at the centre of a second wave of infections, reported 394 cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, compared with a daily average of 400-500 over the past week. The new deaths bring the state’s total to 210.

The southeastern state, with infections concentrated in Melbourne, accounts for a lion’s share of the national tally of more than 21,000 and 295 deaths.

Premier Daniel Andrews says more than 2,700 active cases have no known source and remain the primary concern of health authorities.

A man is detained by police in Melbourne on Sunday. Protesters faced fines and arrest for breaching the chief health officer’s directives as Victoria works to contain COVID-19 transmissions, under stricter lockdown measures introduced Aug. 2. (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

In an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus, Victoria has imposed a night curfew, tightened restrictions on people’s daily movements and ordered large parts of the economy to close.

Earlier in the day, police thwarted a planned anti-mask rally dubbed “Freedom Day Celebration” in Melbourne, arresting seven people and issuing 27 fines.

What’s happening with coronavirus in Canada

As of 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Canada had 119,221 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases. Provinces and territories listed 103,566 of those as recovered or resolved. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC’s reporting stood at 9,014.

Ontario reported its six straight day of fewer than 100 new cases of COVID-19. There were 70 new cases of the novel coronavirus Saturday and one virus-related death. Hospitalizations and ICU admissions also continued to decline, while the number of patients on ventilators remained stable.

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The province has had nearly 40,000 cases of COVID-19 and 2,784 deaths.

In Quebec, the government plans to have students return to classrooms at the end of the month, but some parents want schools to offer an option for online learning.

WATCH | Parents and public health agencies concerned about back-to-school safety:

As Ontario parents continue to press the government for stronger safety measures when schools reopen, public health agencies are making statements that seem to reinforce the parents’ arguments. 1:53

Others are asking for smaller class sizes, additional safeguards to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak, and more details about Quebec’s plan should an outbreak occur.

A petition asking the government to revise its plan had garnered more than 16,700 signatures by Saturday afternoon.

Quebec added 126 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday for a total of 60,367 cases, with five new deaths for a total of 5,692 deaths.

On Saturday, thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown Montreal to protest against the Quebec government’s mandatory mask regulations.

Here’s what’s happening around the world

According to Johns Hopkins University, the global total of confirmed coronavirus cases tops 19.6 million and more than 727,000 people have died.

India’s health ministry on Sunday recorded nearly 64,000 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours for a total of 2,153,010. At least 628,747 patients are still undergoing treatment. India also recorded 861 fatalities, driving the death toll to 43,379.

The Indian Medical Association says 196 doctors have died of COVID-19 so far and, in an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requested adequate care for physicians and their families.

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A health worker collects a swab sample from a man as people outside wait for their test results for COVID-19 at a school in Mumbai, India on Saturday. (Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)

India has been posting an average of around 50,000 new cases a day since mid-June and has the third-highest caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil. It has the fifth-most deaths but its fatality rate of about 2 per cent is far lower than the top two hardest-hit countries.

Even as India has maintained comparatively low mortality rates, the disease has spread widely across the country.

Brazil surpassed a grim milestone on Saturday — 100,000 deaths from COVID-19. And five months after the first reported case, the country is showing no signs of crushing the disease.

The country has been reporting an average of more than 1,000 daily deaths from the pandemic since late May, and 905 were recorded in the latest 24-hour period to put Brazil above 100,000. The health ministry also said there have been been a total of 3,012,412 confirmed infections.

The totals are second only to the United States. And experts believe both Brazil numbers are severe undercounts due to insufficient testing.

New Zealand is marking its 100th day since stamping out the community transmission of COVID-19. Life has returned to normal for many people in the South Pacific nation of five million, as they attend rugby games at packed stadiums and sit down in bars and restaurants without the fear of getting infected.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s leadership has been widely praised, but the country’s international tourism industry has collapsed, and the island nation remains more isolated from the outside world than before.

In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the government has a moral duty to ensure children return to school next month. Most pupils have been out of the classroom since the U.K. went into lockdown in March, though some primary-age children have returned.

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A protester holds up signs during a demonstration protesting the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis in London on Saturday. (Simon Dawson/Dawson)

Writing in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Johnson said “keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible.”

Britain’s official death toll from the coronavirus is more than 46,500, the highest in Europe.

Scientists say the U.K. may have reached the limit of how much it can relax lockdown restrictions without causing a new surge in coronavirus infections. They say some things may have to close — even the country’s beloved pubs — so that schools can reopen fully.

Most U.K. schools start the new term in early September, but those in Scotland begin to reopen this week.

In the United States, President Donald Trump has signed executive orders bypassing Congress to defer payroll taxes for some Americans and extend unemployment benefits after talks on a new coronavirus rescue package collapsed.

Trump accused Democrats of loading up their rescue bill with priorities unrelated to the coronavirus. “We’ve had it,” he said Saturday at a news conference at his country club in Bedminster, N.J.

Guests are seen during a drive-in concert series event in Ventura, Calif., on Saturday. (Rich Fury/Getty Images)

Trump said the payroll tax cut would apply to those earning less than $100,000 a year. Extra aid for the unemployed will total $400 a week, a cut from the $600 that just expired.

Trump also signed executive orders holding off student loan payments and extending the freeze on evictions.

In the United States, new cases of COVID-19 run at about 54,000 a day — and while that’s down from a peak of well over 70,000 last month, cases are rising in nearly 20 states.