Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan hospitalised with coronavirus: Live

The 77-year-old iconic Indian actor and his son tested positive for COVID-19 and have been moved to hospital in Mumbai.

Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan leaves after attending the wedding ceremony of Isha Ambani in Mumbai
  • Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan confirmed he has tested positive for COVID-19 and has been moved to Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai despite having mild symptoms. His 44-year old son, Abhishek, also tested positive of the virus and is admitted in the same private hospital.
  • Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said it was not possible to shut down the country’s economy despite the surge in coronavirus cases.
  • India’s coronavirus cases surged past 800,000 with the biggest single-day spike of 27,114 cases, causing multiple states to impose lockdowns in high-risk areas.
  • More than 12.5 million people around the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and more than 559,000 have died, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University. More than 6.8 million patients have recovered.

Here are the latest updates.

Saturday, July 11

20:00 GMT – Lockdown on the cards as Kashmir virus cases top 10,000

Cases of the novel coronavirus in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir passed 10,000, as according to a government update, 268 more infections were recorded over the past 24 hours, raising the overall count to 10,156.

Ten more COVID-19 patients died over the same period, bringing the death toll to 169.

Official data showed that infections and fatalities have picked up over the past 10 days, with almost 3,000 cases and 69 deaths recorded since July 1.

Amid rising concern among residents, authorities are now considering imposing a lockdown in the Himalayan region.

19:30 GMT – Lebanon records new coronavirus infection high

Lebanon’s number of new coronavirus infections increased for a third consecutive day to a record 86, the government said.

Lebanon has recorded 2,168 infections and 36 deaths since February.

Health Minister Hamad Hassan told Reuters the spike was partly due to expatriates who came after the airport was reopened on July 1. One infected 12 people at a wedding and another infected 12 at a funeral, he said.

A second cluster of infections had appeared among nurses and doctors and a third among refuse collectors, he said.

19:00 GMT – Disney theme parks reopen in Florida

Disney Reopens Its Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom Parks
A view of Mickey Mouse sign at the Walt Disney World theme park entrance in Lake Buena Vista, Florida [Octavio Jones/AFP]

Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom have both reopened after nearly four months, while Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios will follow four days later.

The reopening comes as a huge surge of Floridians have tested positive for the new coronavirus in recent weeks, with 10,000 new cases reported on Saturday.

All of Disney’s Orlando parks closed in mid-March in an effort to stop the virus’s spread.

Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando closed around the same time but reopened several weeks ago after instituting similar rules to protect employees and customers from the virus.

18:30 GMT – Turkey: Coronavirus recoveries approach 200,000

A total of 1,334 people recovered from the novel coronavirus in Turkey over the past day, bringing the current total number to 193,217, said the country’s health minister.

The rate of cases turning into pneumonia is decreasing in Turkey, said Fahrettin Koca.

Turkey saw 1,016 more cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections nationwide to 211,981, the health ministry data showed. The country’s death toll from the virus rose to 5,344, with 21 daily fatalities reported.

18:00 GMT – Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan tests positive for COVID-19

Iconic Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan has tested positive for COVID-19 and been moved to hospital, the actor said in a tweet late on Saturday.

“I have tested COVID positive … shifted to hospital … hospital informing authorities … family and staff undergone tests, results awaited,” the 77-year-old actor said in the tweet.

His son Abhishek Bachchan, 44, also confirmed that he had tested positive.

17:45 GMT – Brazil: Bolsonaro’s wife, two daughters tested negative for COVID-19

Michelle Bolsonaro, the wife of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who is sick with the new coronavirus, said she and her two daughters had tested negative for the virus.

The president announced that he had tested positive on Tuesday, and said he was quarantining while also taking the unproven drug hydroxychloroquine.

Michelle Bolsonaro, whose grandmother was rushed to hospital and intubated last week, made the announcement on Instagram. She has two daughters, one of whom she had with the president.

17:15 GMT – US breaks own daily record for number of virus cases for third day

People go tubing on Salt River in Arizona
People prepare to go tubing on Salt River amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Arizona, US [File: Cheney Orr/Reuters]

The number of new confirmed coronavirus infections in the United States has gone up by about 69,000, the third day in a row the country reported its highest daily new cases.

The rising numbers come amid a surge in new cases that has affected most of the 50 states in the US. As of Saturday, 3.18 million infections were recorded with more than 134,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Overall, coronavirus cases are rising in 44 states, according to a Reuters news agency analysis of cases for the past two weeks compared with the prior two weeks.

Read more here.

17:00 GMT – Coronavirus disease kills 5 more people in Palestine, bringing total to 35

5-day lockdown starts due to Covid-19 in West Bank
Palestinian security forces in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah create checkpoints within measures taken against the coronavirus pandemic due to increase of cases [Anadolu Agency]

The Palestinian health ministry has announced five more deaths caused by the novel coronavirus on Saturday, along with 436 infections.

In a statement, the ministry said four Palestinians from Hebron city and another from Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank died from the disease. 

Palestinian authorities had reported 35 deaths of the disease and 829 recoveries among 5,827 confirmed cases.

16:45 GMT – US Tribes want flexibility on virus relief funds

Tribes across the United States are wrestling with competing needs, restrictive laws and inadequate staffing as they try to meet a tight federal deadline on spending billions of dollars in virus relief funds.

Congress has set aside $8bn for tribes that must be spent by the end of the year and meet strict federal guidelines. Otherwise, the tribes risk having to send it back.

Officials on the vast Navajo Nation have received $714m in aid but approved just $60m for healthcare, protective equipment and front-line workers against the virus.

Rifts between the tribal government’s legislative and executive branches have delayed putting more of the money to use.

16:00 GMT – Israeli police brace for rally against corona cash crisis

Thousands protest against Israel's annexation plan in Tel Aviv
Israeli police officers in Tel Aviv stand guard as people gather to stage a demonstration in accordance with social distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic [File: Anadolu Agency]

Israeli police said they had flooded central Tel Aviv with officers and closed main thoroughfares, ahead of a rally by critics of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis.

“Hundreds of police will be deployed in a number of security cordons,” a police statement said. “The mission is protection of the participants and preservation of public order.”

Organisers of the protests said they expected thousands of Israel’s self-employed to turn out in protest at what they say is the government’s abandonment of them after forcing their businesses to close under coronavirus regulations.

15:30 GMT – Berlin’s football Union club plans virus tests for fans to refill stadium

Bundesliga - Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt
General view during the Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt match at the Allianz Arena in Munich, as play resumes behind closed doors following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease [File: Andreas Gebert/Reuters]

Top-flight German football club Union Berlin is so keen to see its stadium filled with fans once again that it is prepared to pay for coronavirus tests for all of its staff and 22,012 season ticket holders so that they can safely pack the stands.

Germany’s top-flight Bundesliga resumed playing matches in May, but with strict distancing rules that restricted attendance to just a handful of officials, reporters, and camera operators. Coronavirus tests cost around $40 in April, but prices have been falling.

“Our stadium experience doesn’t work with social distancing, and if we aren’t allowed to sing and shout, then it’s not Union,” club chair Dirk Zingler said, adding that the club is prepared to “carry out the costs of implementing the necessary measures ourselves”.

15:00 GMT – India’s Biocon secures approval use drugs on COVID-19 patients

India’s Biocon Ltd has received regulatory approval for its drug Itolizumab to be used on coronavirus infected patients suffering from moderate to severe respiratory distress, the biopharmaceutical company said in a statement.

The drug, which is also used to cure the skin disease psoriasis, was cleared by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for usage in India.

“The randomised control trial indicated that all patients treated with Itolizumab responded postively and recovered,” said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the firm’s executive chairperson.

14:44 GMT – Parma staff member becomes first virus case since Seria A restart

A member of the first team staff at Parma has tested positive for COVID-19, the Serie A club said, adding that all squad staff and players have returned negative results.

It was the first case of the new coronavirus at any of the 20 football clubs since Seria A restarted on June 19.

“The person is completely asymptomatic and was promptly isolated according to federal and ministerial directives,” the club said in a statement, without giving the person’s identity or area of work.

13:55 GMT – Bill Gates ‘optimistic’ about coronavirus battle

US billionaire Bill Gates said he was “optimistic” about the battle against COVID-19 and called for medicines and vaccines to be distributed to those who need them rather than to the “highest bidders”.

Gates’ foundation pledged $7.4bn to global vaccines alliance Gavi in June to help immunisation programmes disrupted by coronavirus.

“If we just let drugs and vaccines go to the highest bidders, instead to the people in the place where they are most needed, we will have a longer and more unjust, deadlier pandemic,” said the Microsoft founder in Saturday’s video message to a virtual international conference on COVID-19 and AIDS.

Hello, this is Linah Alsaafin in Doha taking over from my colleague Usaid Siddiqui.

12:42 GMT – Dubai announces new economic support package, worth over $400 million

Dubai has announced a new package to help the economy cope with the effects of the coronavirus outbreak, worth 1.5 billion dirhams ($408 million), the crown prince of the emirate, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al-Maktoum, said on Twitter.

The package is the third announced by Dubai, the second-largest and wealthiest member of the United Arab Emirates federation. The three packages are worth a total of 6.3 billion dirhams, Sheikh Hamdan said.

12:20 GMT – Vietnam’s most critical patient leaves hospital

A British pilot, known as “Patient 91″, who was Vietnam’s most critical COVID-19 patient was discharged from hospital after being declared virus free.

Accompanied by a group of doctors, the Scottish man left Cho Ray Hospital for Ho Chi Minh city airport, where he is set to fly back to Britain via Hanoi and Frankfurt.

“I’m overwhelmed by the generosity of the Vietnamese people, the dedication and professionalism of the doctors and nurses,” the man said in a video released by the hospital, where he was last treated.

Poster coronavirus hanoi vietnam
Vietnam has reported a total of 369 coronavirus cases, and has not found a new local transmitted infection in nearly three months [Manan Vatsyayana/AFP]

11:55 GMT – Serbia arrests 71 over virus protest violence, including Briton

Serbian police said they have arrested 71 people, including a Briton and a Tunisian, after violence broke out during a protest in Belgrade against the government’s management of the coronavirus pandemic.

Thousands of people demonstrated in several Serbian cities on Friday for a fourth day in a row, with protesters hurling stones at police in front of parliament in the capital.

Fourteen police officers were injured in Friday’s clashes, and 130 since the protests began on Tuesday, the police chief said. No figures have been given for the number of injured protesters.

Anti-government protests in Serbia

11:32 GMT – Iran’s president calls for ban on weddings, wakes to halt virus spread

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani called for big gatherings such as weddings and wakes to be banned to stem a rise in coronavirus infections, but insisted the country’s economy had to stay open.

Shortly after Rouhani’s televised speech, a police official in Tehran announced the closure of all wedding and mourning venues in the capital until further notice.

Who will end hunger in areas hit by the coronavirus? | Inside Story

11:10 GMT – FC Zurich football club finds several positive tests for COVID-19

Swiss top-flight football club FC Zurich found a number of COVID-19 cases among their squad and staff after defender Mirlind Kryeziu tested positive, the club said, raising questions about whether they will be able to complete the season.

The club had said on Friday that the 23-year-old defender had tested positive and that, after discussions with the local health authority, the squad had been quarantined until July 17.

The team’s next two games have been called off.

10:30 GMT – More infections in Syria’s overcrowded rebel enclave emerge

At least two doctors in Syria’s opposition-held northwest have been infected with the coronavirus, according to a monitoring group, raising the total number of cases in the overcrowded rebel enclave to three.

The Syrian opposition and rebel groups control the Idlib area, which is home to more than three million people, most of them displaced by the war and living in camps and overcrowded facilities.

09:55 GMT – Iran says cannot shut down economy despite worsening virus outbreak

Iran said it cannot afford to shut down its sanctions-hit economy, even as the Middle East’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak worsens with record-high death tolls and rising infections.

Iran must continue “economic, social and cultural activities while observing health protocols”, President Hassan Rouhani said during a televised virus taskforce meeting.

“The simplest solution is to close down all activities, [but] the next day, people would come out to protest the [resulting] chaos, hunger, hardship and pressure,” he added.

Iran ATM

09:20 GMT – Philippines confirms 12 new coronavirus deaths, 1,387 more cases

The Philippines’ health ministry reported 12 new coronavirus deaths and 1,387 additional infections, taking the total to 54,222 cases.

The Southeast Asian nation has reported record daily high infection numbers on three of the past eight days.

08:57 GMT – Bill Gates calls for COVID-19 medicines to go to people who need them

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates called for COVID-19 drugs and an eventual vaccine to be made available to countries and people that need them most, not to the “highest bidder”, saying relying on market forces would prolong the deadly pandemic.

“If we just let drugs and vaccines go to the highest bidder, instead of to the people and the places where they are most needed, we’ll have a longer, more unjust, deadlier pandemic,” Gates, a founder of Microsoft, said in a video released during a virtual COVID-19 conference organised by the International AIDS Society.

Bill Gates
Gates said efforts 20 years ago to battle the global HIV/AIDS crisis can serve as a model for making COVID-19 medicines widely accessible [File: Takaaki Iwabu/Bloomberg]

08:32 GMT – Bulgaria postpones league season start amid increase of COVID-19 cases

The Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) postponed the start of next season’s domestic top flight by two weeks after the Balkan country saw the biggest increase of COVID-19 cases in a week.

The BFU’s Medical Commission submitted a proposal on Friday to the BFU’s management to postpone the championship’s kick-off “in view of the complicated epidemiological situation”.

08:08 GMT – Emirates to cut up to 9,000 jobs: Report

Emirates has cut a 10th of its workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic in layoffs that could rise to 15 percent, or 9,000 jobs, its president said, according to a report.

The Middle East’s largest carrier, which operates a fleet of 270 wide-bodied aircraft, halted operations in late March as part of global shutdowns to stem the spread of the virus.

A handout image provided by Emirates airlines on March 8, 2020 in Dubai shows a member of the cleaning staff disinfecting seat screens aboard an Emirates Airbus A380-800 aircraft for sterilisation eff
The International Air Transport Association has said airlines are in line to make a combined net loss of more than $84bn this year in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, the biggest in the industry’s history [File: Emirates Airlines /AFP]

07:45 GMT – Russia reports 6,611 new coronavirus infections

Russia reported 6,611 new coronavirus cases, taking its nationwide tally of infections to 720,547.

The country’s coronavirus crisis response centre said 188 people had died from the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 11,205.

07:17 GMT – 4,000 volunteers to help test vaccine in Germany

Some 4,000 volunteers have registered as subjects for a coronavirus vaccination study at the University
Hospital in Tuebingen.

“It’s a real luxury situation, unlike usual clinical trials,” study director Peter Kremsner told DPA news agency on Friday.

“Normally we have trouble coming up with enough test subjects.”

Outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Tuebingen
Germany’s reported death toll rose by seven to 9,118 on Saturday [Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters]

06:45 GMT – Bangladeshi coronavirus sufferers shun hospitals

Thousands of beds for coronavirus patients in Bangladesh are lying empty despite the country struggling with a rising caseload as people are too scared to enter hospitals, officials and sufferers say.

Some patients have bluntly told health workers they would “rather die at home than die in a hospital”, an official for a medical charity told AFP news agency.

Bangladesh has registered about 180,000 COVID-19 infections, and about 3,000 new cases are being added each day, while the death toll stood at 2,275 by Friday.

06:15 GMT – NHL, players approve plan to resume season, extend CBA

Hockey became the latest sport to finalise a return during a global pandemic after NHL owners and players approved an agreement on Friday to resume the season – and with it an assurance of labour peace through September 2026.

Games are scheduled to begin on August 1 in Toronto and Edmonton, Alberta, with coronavirus cases in the US pushing the league into Canada for the summer and fall until the Stanley Cup is awarded in late September or early October.

nhl game in march

05:45 GMT – Panama hospitals on verge of collapse as virus cases surge

Hospitals in Panama are on the brink of collapse as coronavirus cases spike in the Central American country worst hit by the pandemic, where doctors are already exhausted.

With a population of four million, Panama has gone from 200 cases a day to 1,100 over the last few weeks.

“Our daily number of infected patients has been increasing in a sustained way to the point of passing 1,000 cases,” David Villalobos, head of the intensive care unit at the Arnulfo Arias Madrid Hospital in Panama City, told AFP news agency.


Hello, this is Usaid Siddiqui in Doha taking over from my colleague Zaheena Rasheed.


04:57 GMT – India’s case-load surpasses 800,000

India’s coronavirus cases passed 800,000 with the biggest spike of 27,114 cases in the past 24 hours, causing nearly a dozen states to impose a partial lockdown in high-risk areas.

The new confirmed cases took the national total to 820,916. The Ministry of Health also reported another 519 more deaths, taking the total to 22,123. A surge in infections saw the cases jumping from 600,000 to more than 800,000 in nine days.

Eight of India’s 28 states, including the worst-hit Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi, account for nearly 90 percent of all infections.

India coronavirus
Health workers arrive to screen people for COVID-19 symptoms at a slum in Mumbai, India [Rafiq Maqbool/AP]

04:32 GMT – Poll shows broad disapproval of Trump’s coronavirus response

Nearly two-thirds of Americans disapprove of US President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new ABC/Ipsos poll.

Some 67 percent of those surveyed said they disapproved of Trump’s efforts – the highest level of dissatisfaction with his response since the pandemic began. The drop was driven by plunging support among independents and even waning support among Republicans, ABC News said.

Meltdowns over masks amid coronavirus outbreak go viral (1:27)

03:39 GMT – French bus driver dies after attack over mask-wearing rules

A French bus driver who was badly beaten by passengers for asking them to wear face masks in line with coronavirus rules has died, his family said.

Philippe Monguillot, 59, was left brain dead by the attack in the southwestern town of Bayonne last weekend and died in hospital on Friday after his family decided to switch off his life-support system.

Two men have been charged with attempted murder over the attack and prosecutor Jerome Bourrier told AFP news agency that he would ask for the charges to be upgraded following Monguillot’s death.

France’s Prime Minister Jean Castex led tributes to Monguillot, calling him “an exemplary citizen”.

02:51 GMT – Australia’s Victoria records another day of high cases

Australia’s second-most populous state reported one of its highest daily increases in new coronavirus infections as it began its first weekend under a six-week lockdown.

Victoria state recorded 216 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, down from a record 288 cases the previous day.

“It will get worse before it gets better,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told a televised news conference. “We will see more and more additional cases. This is going to be with us for months and months.”

There were 100 separate outbreaks in Victoria, the state’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, told the news conference.

01:43 GMT – Unexplained pneumonia in Kazakhstan ‘likely to be COVID-19’

Dr Michael Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies chief, said the agency believes an unexplained pneumonia outbreak in Kazakhstan is likely due to the coronavirus.

“We’re looking at the actual testing and the quality of testing to make sure that there haven’t been false negative tests for some of those other pneumonias that are provisionally tested negative,” Ryan said.

Ryan said the WHO was working with local authorities to review X-rays and look at the pattern of pneumonia cases to see if they were consistent with COVID-19.

“While we believe that many of these cases will be diagnosed as COVID-19, we keep an open mind,” he said.

00:37 GMT – US welcomes WHO inquiry into virus origins in China

Andrew Bromberg, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said Washington welcomes the WHO’s probe into the origins of the novel coronavirus in China.

“We view the scientific investigation as a necessary step to having a complete and transparent understanding of how this virus has spread throughout the world,” he told reporters.

The United States, the WHO’s largest donor, this week notified the agency that it was withdrawing in a year’s time after accusing it of being too close to China and not doing enough to question Beijing’s actions at the start of the crisis.

00:20 GMT – Brazil’s death toll surpasses 70,000

Brazil exceeded 70,000 coronavirus deaths on Friday, the health ministry said, though the number of daily fatalities appears to be stabilizing.

The ministry said there had been 45,000 new infections and 1,200 deaths over the last 24 hours, taking the totals to 1.8 million cases and 70,400 deaths.

Brazil is the second-worst affected country in the world after the United States.

00:02 GMT – California to release 8,000 prisoners to slow pandemic

The US state of California will release up to 8,000 inmates early from state prisons to slow the spread of COVID-19 inside facilities, state authorities said.

Prisoners with a year or less left to serve will be eligible for release. Among prisoners excluded from early release are those convicted of violent felonies and sex crimes, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday that nearly 2,400 people in California’s 35 prisons have tested positive for the coronavirus, including 1,314 at San Quentin State Prison north of San Francisco.


Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives.

You can find all the key developments from yesterday, July 10, here.

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies