Coronavirus

The grim milestone comes amid growing political unrest and days after the country confirmed more than one million coronavirus infections.

Experts warn that the peak of the outbreak in Brazil is still weeks away.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded the biggest one-day increase in cases, with the Americas responsible for most of the new infections.

Of the 183,000 new cases reported in 24 hours, more than 60% were from North and South America, the agency said.

 The city reported another 31 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 137 in the past week.

Before the recent spike, the Chinese capital had gone 57 days without a locally-transmitted case.

The outbreak is believed to have started in the massive Xinfandi food market that supplies 80% of the city's meat and vegetables.

At least 27 neighbourhoods have been classed as medium risk and one neighbourhood, near the market, is high risk.

People in medium or high-risk areas cannot leave the city. People in low-risk areas can leave, but need to test negative first.

The 47-year-old was criticised for his cost-cutting measures, including asking 80% of staff to take a pay cut.

He was appointed in October 2018 following James Sutherland's 17-year tenure.

Englishman Nick Hockley, the chief executive of the T20 World Cup, has replaced Roberts on an interim basis.

Cricket Australia said a wider "operational reset" at the governing body will be announced this week.

The United States still had the highest number of infections, about 2 million or 25 percent of all reported cases. However, the outbreak is growing fastest in Latin America, which now accounts for 21 percent of all cases, according to a Reuters tally.

Brazil's Covid-19 cases and deaths had surged to make it second hot spot in the world.

The first case was reported in China in early January and it took until early May to reach 4 million cases. It has taken just five weeks to double to 8 million cases, according to a Reuters tally.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna told Newshub earlier this month that without any cases of the disease, the Cook Islands poses no threat to New Zealand - and vice versa. Samoa, Kiribati, Nauru, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu and Tuvalu also haven't reported any cases.

New Zealand's last confirmed case was more than three weeks ago, and it's been four weeks since the last patient known to be infected via community transmission left self-isolation.

The bot called Ᾱmio was created by three New Zealand doctors, Sanjeev Krishna, Canaan Aumua and Cole Rudolph, and is currently in English and Mandarin.

Dr Aumua said the Samoan, Tongan and Fijian languages would be the first set of Pacific languages the team would explore for Ᾱmio.

"There's also been some questions around the Cook Islands and Cook Island Māori because of how it would be an easy and nice transition between the two languages.

The child of one of the Bulldogs players attends a school in the Sutherland Shire where a staff member has tested positive for Covid-19.

The primary school has closed until 25 June and students have been told to self-isolate.

The Bulldogs and Roosters game will now be played on Monday night at Bankwest Stadium due to the potential biosecurity problem.

Sunday's later game between St George Illawarra and Cronulla at Campbelltown Stadium has been brought forward to the earlier timeslot.

The health ministry said 3,574 new Covid-19 infections were recorded on Wednesday - the third consecutive day the figure has exceeded 3,000.

Another 59 people with the disease died, raising the toll to 8,071.

The president has said restrictions may be re-imposed if people do not follow social distancing and hygiene rules.

Before Wednesday's new infections were reported, bringing the overall total to 164,270, the previous high was 3,186 on 30 March. The number of cases then declined steadily until 2 May, when 802 were recorded.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said:

Our total number of confirmed cases remains at 1,154, which is the number we report to the World Health Organization.

Our combined total of confirmed and probable cases remains at 1,504.

The number of recovered cases is unchanged at 1,481. Only one case remains active.

There are no additional deaths to report.

There is no one in New Zealand receiving hospital-level care for COVID-19.

Another passenger flight is due in to arrive in Nauru on Friday, 29 May from Brisbane.

In a media briefing, President Lionel Aingimea said all passengers will go through the usual procedure of quarantine and swab testing.

He confirmed that the Government is still in discussions with the Fiji government on the status of the repatriation flight.

Two Nauruans were successfully repatriated from Kiribati via Brisbane, Dr Layana Menke’s internship programme in Kiribati has recommenced and she has since opted to remain in Kiribati to complete her internship.