Coronavirus: latest global developments

The pandemic has killed 501,847 people worldwide since it surfaced in China late last year, according to an AFP tally on Monday based on official sources. 

More than 10.1 million people have been infected in 196 countries and territories.

The United States is the hardest hit country with 125,803 deaths. It is followed by Brazil with 57,622, Britain with 43,550, Italy 34,738 and France with 29,778 fatalities.

- America's south cracks down - 

With a surge in new coronavirus cases in more than half of US states, bars in Los Angeles and six other Californian counties are ordered to close again by the state governor.

Texas and Florida, which with California make up the three most populous states in the country, had already once again cracked down, ordering bars to stop serving alcohol.

- Britain plans Great Depression response -

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the coronavirus crisis needs the type of massive economic response US president Franklin D. Roosevelt mobilised to deal with the Great Depression in the 1930s.

He is speaking a day before unveiling a spending programme in a speech his office has simply dubbed "build, build, build", for a country whose GDP is expected to plunge by more than 10 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. 

- Chinese military tries out vaccine -

As the world races to find a way to treat the coronavirus, China's military approves a vaccine for use within its ranks that has been developed by its research unit and a biotech firm, Hong Kong-listed CanSino Biologics.

More than half of 17 candidate vaccines identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) that are in clinical evaluation involve Chinese companies or institutes.

- Asian stocks follow Wall Street - 

Asian markets follow a steep sell-off on Wall Street after a surge in coronavirus infections in several countries prompted officials to reimpose containment measures that have fanned worries about the economic recovery.

Tokyo, Sydney and Seoul all drop more than one percent, while Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai each dip 0.6 percent. Europe's stock markets edge higher, however, as investors balance easing global lockdowns against news of surging coronavirus infections.

- Cheers! Irish pubs reopen -

Irish pubs begin pouring pints, ending a 15-week dry spell forced by the nation's lockdown, as the republic enters the penultimate stage of its plan to lift stay-at-home restrictions. However strict social distancing measures are in place in often heaving pubs.

All domestic travel restrictions are also lifted, as churches, hairdressers, cinemas and museums open and mass gatherings of 50 indoors or 200 outdoors are permitted.

- Misinformation -

Coronavirus misinformation spread by Russian and Chinese journalists is finding a bigger audience on social media in France and Germany than content from the nations' own premier news outlets, according to new research from the Oxford Internet Institute.

The institute, which is part of Oxford University, looked at content generated by leading media outlets from Russia and China, as well as from Iran and Turkey -- all of which are state-controlled or closely aligned to regimes in power.