Coronavirus: What’s happening around the world on June 23 – CBC.ca

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Renewed lockdown measures in a region of Germany where hundreds of coronavirus cases have sprung up at a slaughterhouse and states in the U.S. reporting record new cases provided a stark reminderon Tuesday that the pandemic is far from over.

In the U.S., a number of states reported record daily increaseson Tuesday.

Nevadareported a record 462 new casesamid an uptick of infections that started about two weeks after casinos in Las Vegas reopened; Arizona reported arecord of nearly 3,600 newcasesas the state continued to set records for the number of people hospitalized, in intensive care and on ventilators; Texas Gov.Greg Abbott said hisstate surpassed 5,000 new cases in a single day for the first time; and Mississippi reported a record 611 new cases.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, told a House committee on Tuesday he believes "it will be when and not if" there will be a COVID-19 vaccine and that he remains "cautiously optimistic" that some will be ready at the end of the year

WATCH |Fauci'cautiously optimistic' COVID-19 vaccine will be available by end of 2020:

In Germany, lockdown restrictions are in effect in the North Rhine-Westphalia state after more than 1,550 people tested positive for coronavirus at the Toennies slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck.

Thousands more workers and family members were put into quarantine to try to halt the outbreak.

On Tuesday, North Rhine-Westphalia Gov. Armin Laschet said people in Guetersloh and parts of a neighbouring county will now face the same restrictions that Germany saw in March and April, including curbs on social gatherings and bar closures.

"The purpose is to calm the situation, to expand testing to establish whether or not the virus has spread beyond the employees of Toennies," Laschet said.

WATCH |German region reinstates lockdown after meat factory virus outbreak:

The governor expressed frustration at the company's handling of the outbreak, saying authorities had to order Toennies to release the names of its employees.

"The readiness to co-operate could have been greater," he said.

Union officials have blamed poor working and living conditions that migrant workers faced under a loosely regulated sub-contractor.

Mexico posted another record one-day increase in confirmed cases 6,288 while 793 more deaths have been reported.

Officials claim the pandemic has stabilized and may have even started a downward trend this week, but they have made that claim several times before.

Mexico has also had an extremely high rate of infections among health care professionals. About 39,000 of the country's confirmed cases are health care workers.There have been 584 deaths among doctors, nurses, technicians and hospital workers.

The World Health Organization says the pandemic is still growing.

"The epidemic is now peaking or moving toward a peak in a number of large countries," said Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO's emergencies chief.

Brazil recorded 39,436 new casesas well as 1,374 new deaths, the country's health ministry said on Tuesday.

The country has the second most COVID-19 cases and deaths in the worldbehind the U.S.

South Africa braced for an anticipated surge of COVID-19 cases by opening a large field hospital with 3,300 beds in a converted car manufacturing plant.

The field hospital has been constructed in the city of East London in the Eastern Cape province, one of the country's centres of the disease. South Africa has now reported a total of 101,590 coronavirus cases, including 1,991 deaths.

India has been recording about 15,000 new infections each day, and some states Tuesday were considering fresh lockdown measures to try to halt the spread of the virus among the country's 1.3 billion people. The government had lifted a nationwide lockdown to restart the ailing economy and give hope to millions of hungry, unemployed day labourers.

India's huge virus caseload is highlighting the country's unequal society, where private hospitals cater to the rich and public hospitals are so overwhelmed that many people fear to enter them.

In Pakistan, the government is determined to buoy the frail economy by opening up the country even if overcrowded hospitals are turning away patients. New cases have also been rising steeply in Mexico, Colombia and Indonesia.

Concerns over the spread of the virus prompted Saudi Arabia's unprecedented decision to limit the number of people performing the hajj pilgrimage this year to only a few thousand. The pilgrimage usually draws up to 2.5 million Muslims from all over the world.

Saudi Arabia has one of the highest infection rates in the Middle East, with more than 161,000 confirmed cases so far, including 1,307 deaths.

Worldwide, more than 9.1 million people have been infected and more than 473,000 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.The United States has the most infections and deaths by far in the world, with 2.3 million cases and over 120,000 confirmed virus-related deaths. Experts say the true numbers are much higher because of limited testing and cases in which patients had no symptoms.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it took more than three months for the world to see onemillion confirmed infections but just eight days to see the most recent onemillion cases.

"The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself. It's the lack of global solidarity and global leadership," he said.

As of 6p.m.ET on Tuesday, Canada had 101,963 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases, with 64,704 of the cases listed asresolved or recovered. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial data, regional information and CBC's reporting stood at 8,499.

There are no proven treatments or vaccines for the novel virus, which causes an illness called COVID-19. Health officials say most people who contract the virus will experience mild to moderate illness, but some particularly those with underlying health issues and the elderly are at greater risk of severe illness and death.

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Coronavirus: What's happening around the world on June 23 - CBC.ca