Anadolu Agency's Morning Briefing - June 29, 2020

ANKARA

Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic and other news in Turkey and around the world.

Virus in Turkey

Turkey announced 1,413 more recoveries from the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to over 170,000, according to Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.

The country's death toll from the virus rose to 5,097 as it reported 15 new fatalities.

Some 996 patients remain in intensive care, added Koca.

Health care professionals conducted 48,309 tests for the disease in the past day, raising the total count to over 3.28 million.

Coronavirus outbreak across world

The death toll worldwide from the novel coronavirus surpassed 500,000 on Sunday, according to a running tally by US-based Johns Hopkins University.

Global coronavirus cases exceeded 10 million on Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins.

British health authorities announced Sunday that 36 more people had died from the novel coronavirus across the UK over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 43,550.

Spain registered 301 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday as the region of Madrid celebrated its first day without any virus-linked deaths in months.

Russia's coronavirus-linked deaths this week dropped below 1,000 for the first time since April, the latest figures show.

Virus-related fatalities fell from 1,163 last week to 962 ‒ a nearly 20% fall, according to data from the country's coronavirus task force Sunday.

Israel has entered a second wave of the coronavirus outbreak, the country’s health minister said.

Yuli Edelstein said at a press conference that the country is experiencing a second wave of the pandemic and will take new measures.

Iran said Sunday that it will make wearing masks mandatory in public from next week as it confirmed 144 more fatalities from the novel coronavirus, bringing the nationwide death toll to 10,508.

China reported 17 new coronavirus cases while South Korea reported 40 on Sunday.

Security, anti-terror ops in Turkey 

Turkey on Sunday celebrated the 2,229th anniversary of the Turkish Land Forces, one of the oldest armies in the world.

Three YPG/PKK terrorists surrendered to security forces in southeastern Turkey, the Interior Ministry said Sunday.

In a statement, it said the terrorists, one of whom is on the country's grey list, laid down their arms in Sirnak province after being persuaded by security forces and their families.

On the same day, Turkish security forces “neutralized” a PKK terrorist in northern Iraq.

The terrorist was targeted in the Zap region in an air-backed operation, the National Defense Ministry said on Twitter.

Other developments

French President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party suffered a major defeat in municipal elections held on Sunday.

Meanwhile, according to the first-round results of presidential elections in Poland, no candidate has achieved the 50% needed for an all-out victory.

Poland's incumbent President Andrzej Duda's Law and Justice (PiS) party received 41.8% of the vote, according to the exit polls.

Malawi’s newly elected president was sworn in on Sunday, pledging to make the country inclusive to all.

The Pakistani army announced Sunday that it had shot down another Indian "spy” quadcopter along the disputed Kashmir border, where the two countries’ forces have long been engaged in nearly daily firing.

A magnitude 5.2 earthquake jolted Turkey’s western province of Mugla on Sunday, according to the country's disaster management agency.