Coronavirus: latest global developments

PARIS: Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

Indian metros up and running

Key metro train lines re-open in India, as part of efforts to boost its lockdown-battered economy, even as the country overtakes Brazil as the country with the second highest number of confirmed cases.

Passengers, all masked, have to leave empty seats between each other, and could only enter carriages after undergoing temperature screening.

Nearly 890,000 dead

The pandemic has killed at least 890,086 people worldwide since surfacing in China late last year, according to an AFP count at 1800 GMT on Monday based on official sources.

The countries which have registered the most new deaths in their latest tolls are Ecuador with 3,800, India (1,016) and Brazil (447).

Europe is also seeing a spike in cases, notably in Britain, France -- and Spain, which passed the half million case mark on Monday.

Berlusconi has 'strong immune response'

Italy's former premier Silvio Berlusconi appears to be improving after being hospitalised last week with coronavirus, his doctor Alberto Zangrillo says. The 83-year-old media tycoon is being treated for a lung infection at San Raffaele hospital in Milan where he was admitted on Thursday night.

Tokyo Olympics 'will take place'

The postponed Olympics will go ahead next year regardless of the coronavirus pandemic, IOC vice president John Coates tells AFP in an exclusive interview.

"It will take place with or without Covid. The Games will start on July 23 next year," says Coates, who heads the International Olympic Committee's Coordination Commission for the Tokyo Games.

Cases spiral in Gaza, Libya

The number of novel coronavirus cases in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip has risen tenfold over the past two weeks, bringing the total to over 1,000, Palestinian officials say.

And Libya reports more than 1,000 new infections, the highest tally for a single day since the conflict-ravaged country announced its first cases in late March.

French Open players in two hotels

All tennis players at the French Open from September 27-October 11 will be housed in two designated hotels "without exception" to reduce the risks from coronavirus.

Tournament director Guy Forget also announces that just 11,500 spectators a day will be admitted instead of the 20,000 they were originally hoping to accommodate.