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The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
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BEIJING -- Beijing has published a slew of measures to tighten the control of personnel flow following the emergence of several new clusters of COVID-19 infections, a security official said at a press conference Thursday.
People belonging to three categories are not allowed to leave Beijing, according to Pan Xuhong, deputy head and spokesperson of the municipal public security bureau.
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HONG KONG -- The Hong Kong Disneyland reopened on Thursday after being temporarily closed for nearly five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To ensure the health and safety of visitors and employees, the theme park has adopted new measures and procedures, such as increased frequency of cleaning and sanitization, and limited attendance.
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ADDIS ABABA -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent surpassed 267,519 as of Thursday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
The Africa CDC in its latest situation update said that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across Africa rose from 259,036 on Wednesday afternoon to 267,519 as of Thursday afternoon.
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LONDON -- The Bank of England announced on Thursday to expand its asset-purchasing program by an additional 100 billion pounds (124.5 billion U.S. dollars) in its latest effort to support the economy through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new quantitative easing came three months after the bank's stimulus measures of cutting interest rate from 0.75 percent to a record low of 0.1 percent and increasing its bond-buying program by 200 billion pounds (249 billion dollars) to 645 billion pounds (803 billion dollars).
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KUALA LUMPUR -- Active COVID-19 cases in Malaysia dropped below 500 on Thursday as the number of newly recovered cases continue to outpace new confirmed ones.
Malaysia reported 14 new cases of COVID-19, pushing the total cases to 8,529, the Health Ministry said. Three are imported cases and of the local transmissions, seven are foreign nationals and four are Malaysians.
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KATHMANDU -- Medical goods top the import chart from China through Tatopani-Zhangmu border point since reopening of the border point in early April, Nepal's Customs data show.
The border point was closed in January. On April 8, Tatopani customs had made the first clearance of goods imported from China after the reopening. Medical goods imported by a Nepali private company were the first to be cleared on that day.
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NEW DELHI -- Indian Health Minister Harsh Vardhan Thursday launched the country's first mobile lab for COVID-19 testing.
The mobile lab has been launched to promote testing access in rural parts of India.
"Health and family welfare minister Harsh Vardhan inaugurates India's first I-Lab (Infectious disease diagnostic lab) for COVID-19 testing in rural and inaccessible areas of India," a brief statement put out by the minister's office said.
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ULAN BATOR -- Mongolia will send five chartered flights to South Korea, Turkey and Japan in July to evacuate Mongolian nationals amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's foreign ministry said Thursday.
Meanwhile, a total of 164 Mongolian nationals wishing to return home from China will be brought back via the Zamiin-Uud border point in the coming days, Lkhanaajav Munkhtushig, director general of the ministry's consular department, added during a news conference.
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BEIJING -- The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday said it has successfully isolated and cultured the novel coronavirus from the recent clusters of COVID-19 infections in Beijing.
On June 11 and 13, the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention under the CDC, received two batches of respiratory tract samples, collected from the COVID-19 cases related to Beijing's Xinfadi wholesale farm produce market. On Monday, cytopathy was seen in the cells inoculated with the virus, and results of nucleic acid tests showed rapid amplification of the virus, which signified the success of the isolated culture of the virus, according to the CDC.
