August 14 coronavirus news

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said the country "is in a privileged situation compared to most other countries” when it comes to the pandemic's impact on the economy.

The President made the remarks during his weekly Facebook live webcast on Thursday. 

Despite Brazil having the second highest death toll globally, Bolsonaro advocated for the entire country to be reopened and explained how he expects the Brazilian economy to recover “until the end of the year” if it continues to open up.

Bolsonaro has been downplaying the outbreak in Brazil since the start the pandemic, frequently criticizing coronavirus lockdown measures and news coverage of the virus. 

Unemployment: The latest official figures on unemployment show that a total of 8.9 million people lost their jobs as the coronavirus pandemic swept through Brazil -- representing the sharpest contraction on record for the country.

Brazil's unemployment rate rose to 13.3% for the quarter ending in June.

Cases continue to rise: On Thursday, Brazil reported at least 60,091 new cases from Covid-19 and 1,262 new fatalities, bringing the confirmed nationwide total to 3,224,876 and 105,463 deaths.

India is creating an air corridor with Maldives in a bid to boost tourism and revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs announced Thursday.

The corridor would "facilitate movement of people from both sides for employment, tourism, medical emergencies," the ministry said in a press release.

The first flight under the new arrangement is expected to take off on August 18. 

“The air bubble symbolizes India’s support to shore up tourism arrivals and revenues in the Maldives,” the ministry said.

The Indian government has also extended urgent financial assistance of $250 million in the form of a soft loan to assist Maldives in its economic recovery during the pandemic. 

In March, India banned all international flights in and out of the country as part of its coronavirus response. It has since opened up air corridors with France, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Germany to facilitate travel.

The announcement of the Maldives travel bubble comes as India reported 64,553 new coronavirus cases and 1,007 deaths on Friday.

India recorded 64,553 new coronavirus cases and 1,007 deaths in the past 24 hours, the country's Health Ministry announced Friday.

The country has reported 2,461,190 Covid-19 cases since the outbreak began, according to the ministry, the third highest in the world after the United States and Brazil.

The confirmed number of fatalities stands at 48,040.

More than 661,595 cases remain active. The total number of recovered patients in India stands at more than 1.7 million, according to the government.

On Thursday, the Health Ministry announced the highest confirmed number of daily infections, at 66,999.

South Korea registered 103 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the South Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.

It's the first time the country reported more than 100 new daily cases since April 1.

Among the new cases, 85 were locally transmitted and 18 others were imported, Vice Health Minister Kim Ganglip said at a briefing. 

Churches and schools: Kim said the health authorities are very concerned about multiple clusters from churches, door-to-door sales companies, markets and schools in Seoul and Gyeonggi province. 

Sarang-jeil church in Seoul has 13 cases and the number is expected to rise. Kim said the church has not been fully cooperative with the government’s tracing efforts.

New rules for foreign patients: Starting from August 17, foreign coronavirus patients who violate South Korean anti-virus measures will be responsible for full treatment costs. 

South Korea has so far reported 14,873 Covid-19 cases and 305 deaths, according to the KCDC. 

Venezuela reported 1,281 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, the highest daily increase in infections, according to the country's Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.

The total number of confirmed cases in Venezuela stands at 8,725.

Rodriguez said there were 18 new Covid-19 related deaths on Thursday, raising the total number of confirmed fatalities since the start of the pandemic to 259. 

Venezuela has seen an increase in Covid-19 cases over the past few weeks. Thursday was the fourth day in a row the country reported its highest daily number of cases.

Japan reported 1,177 new cases of Covid-19 and 10 deaths on Thursday, according to the country's Health Ministry.

The new infections bring Japan's nationwide confirmed total to 52,929 cases, with 712 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

The number of deaths stands at 1,086, with 13 from the ship.

Thursday marks the first day in four days that the number of daily cases has risen back over 1,000.

On Thursday, the capital Tokyo counted 206 new infections, while Osaka had 177 cases.

Okinawa prefecture, which has the highest number of infections per capita, extended its own state of emergency for another two weeks, while adding 97 new infections.

An advisor to President Donald Trump on coronavirus has said that “young people are not at risk for serious disease” from Covid-19.

 Dr. Scott Atlas made the comments to Martha MacCallum Thursday night on Fox News.

Fact check: Adults are more likely to become seriously ill from Covid-19, but children can get sick, and have serious complications. 

Rare complications: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported at least 570 cases of children with MIS-C, a rare but serious coronavirus complication in children that has been associated with fever, rash, inflammation and shock. Ten of those children died.

Increased virus rates in kids: There has been a 90% increase in the number of Covid-19 cases among children in the United States over the last four weeks, according to an analysis by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association released this week. 

New Zealand reported 12 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the country's top health official announced today. 

All the new cases were locally transmitted, New Zealand’s Director General of Health Dr. Ashley Bloomfield said at a press conference. 

Two of the new cases were students while one case was a pre-school student. 

The two schools and the pre-school the students attended have been closed while close contacts are being traced, according to Bloomfield. 

A total of 771 close contacts of the reported Covid-19 cases this week have been identified by the national contact tracing service, he added.  

Bloomfield also announced that 15,703 coronavirus tests were conducted on Thursday alone -- the highest in a single day in New Zealand since the outbreak began, bringing the total number of tests conducted across the country to 524,414. 

Read more on the situation in New Zealand.

Mexico’s Health Ministry on Thursday reported 7,371 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the country's total to 505,751.

The ministry also reported 627 new deaths, bringing the total death toll to 55,293.