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Eight COVID-19 patients died in India when a fire engulfed the critical care unit of a hospital in Ahmedabad city in the western Gujarat state early Thursday.The victims included five men and three women.About 35 other patients in the hospital were shifted to other facilities.Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was “saddened by the tragic hospital fire” and said that all possible assistance is being given to those affected.Gujarat, Modi’s home state, is among the worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.Preliminary investigations revealed that the fire, which broke out around 3:30 a.m. in the private hospital, was caused by an electrical short circuit. It spread to the intensive care ward within minutes, municipal commissioner Mukesh Kumar told the Press Trust of India.Poor safety standards are often a cause of fires in India.Firemen who fought the blaze will have to undergo quarantine, fire officials said. 
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A team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) is in South Africa to help the country get control of its rapid rise in coronavirus cases.The WHO said in a statement that 43 experts in specialties including, epidemiology, health education, and surveillance, prevention and control will support the COVID-19 response team.The WHO’s surge team will first observe the work of South Africa’s health department before lending special support to the hardest-hit jurisdictions, including Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Kwazulu Natal, and Mpumalanga.The rise in the spread of the virus has pushed South Africa to nearly 530,000 cases, the fifth highest in the world.South Africa has confirmed more than 9,200 deaths from the coronavirus.In a separate development, Health Minister Dr. Zwelini Mkhize said, cases in Gauteng, Western Cape, and Eastern Cape have slowed but it’s too early to determine if the cases have peaked.
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Colombian media outlets say that former President Alvaro Uribe is self-quarantining with the coronavirus Thursday. The local media reported Wednesday that Uribe was infected with the virus, a day after the Supreme Court ordered that he be placed on house arrest. The court is investigating if Uribe was involved in a plot to bribe witnesses in a case involving former members of paramilitary death squads. Uribe, one of the most influential politicians in Colombia, is said to be in good health with no symptoms of the virus at his ranch in Córdoba. Bogotá’s El Tiempo newspaper says Uribe is expressing concern for his wife’s well-being, with their sons Jerónimo and Tomás also infected with the coronavirus. The status of the couple’s sons is unclear.   Colombia has confirmed more than 345,700 cases of the coronavirus and more than 11,000 deaths. 
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Some people in a Brazil hotspot for the coronavirus are taking extraordinary steps to receive a free coronavirus test in Sao Paulo state, the hardest hit region in the country. A day after missing her test because the supply ran out, Manuela Souza said, she secured her place in line and slept in the car with her children overnight to make sure she got tested. The drive-thru tests are being administered by the Butantan Institute for Biological Research. Juliana Carvalhal, the project manager at Butantan Institute said, their goal is to identify asymptomatic people carrying the virus. Carvalhal said, people unaware they are infected continue to socialize and potentially infect others.Brazil aims to test up to 400 people in Sao Paulo daily through next Monday. Sao Paulo state has confirmed 585,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 24,000 deaths. Brazil leads all of Latin America with more than 2,860,000 cases and more than 97,400 deaths. 
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Due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, a growing number of U.S. states are expanding options for voting by mail instead of in person for the November presidential election. Voting by mail has a long history in the U.S., dating back to the Civil War. However, President Donald Trump claims mail-in voting will lead to election fraud or months of uncertainty following the vote.  White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports on how a routine voting option is becoming a central political debate of the 2020 election.  Produced by:  Bakhtiyar Zamanov
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Police in Florida said three teenage boys were arrested after they entered U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort with an AK-47 in a backpack.Palm Beach Police spokesperson Michael Ogrodnick said the three 15-year-old boys jumped a wall at Mar-a-Lago while fleeing a police officer late last Friday.The officer had approached the boys as they sat in a car a few miles north of the resort. The boys sped off in the car, trying to escape. They abandoned the car near Mar-a-Lago when they saw another police cruiser and escaped onto the grounds of the resort, Ogrodnick said.”They didn’t try to get into any buildings, they just jumped over the wall and tried to hide,” he said.Trump was not at the resort when the incident took place.The teens, who were not identified, are being held in a juvenile facility while prosecutors decide if they should be charged as adults. The teens have denied they owned the AK-47, saying they had found it.Trump’s resort has been the scene of several invasions since he became president.In January, two women were arrested after police opened fire on them for running two security checkpoints nearby, in a car chase not related to Trump.In February, a Chinese woman was sentenced to six months in jail for resisting arrest during an incident last year when she entered Mar-a-Lago without permission. That took place just months after another Chinese woman was found guilty of lying to federal officers and trespassing onto the resort.   
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​. Daily Debunk”Fact-checking 22 claims from Donald Trump’s Axios interview,” PolitiFact, August 4.Social Media DisinfoScreenshotCirculating on social media: Claim that Dr. Anthony Fauci said in 2005 that hydroxychloroquine was both a cure and a vaccine for coronavirus.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: Lead StoriesFactual Reads on CoronavirusCoronavirus: WHO gears up for main mission into China to hunt for the origins of Covid-19
WHO and Chinese experts have drafted terms of reference for probe into the epidemiology of early infections.
— South China Morning Post, August 4Everything you need to know about the UK’s new 90-minute coronavirus test
Two new coronavirus tests that can return results in just over an hour are set to be released in the UK, the government has announced.
— Euronews, August 3
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The United States is pushing ahead with its bid to extend an international arms embargo on Iran by way of a second draft U.N. Security Council resolution, despite what some diplomats say is a lack of enthusiasm for such a move among its 15 members.The U.S.-drafted resolution needs at least nine votes in favor to force Russia and China to use their vetoes, which Moscow and Beijing have signaled they will do. Some diplomats question whether Washington can even secure those nine, however.”We have tabled a resolution that we think accomplishes what we think needs to be accomplished,” U.S. Iran envoy Brian Hook told the Aspen Security Forum, held virtually, on Wednesday.FILE – U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook speaks to VOA Persian at the State Department in Washington, Feb. 26, 2020.”The easy way is to do a rollover of the arms embargo,” he said. “It’s not difficult. There’s all the reasons in the world to do it. But we will do this, one way or another.”The arms embargo on Iran is set to end October 18 under Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which Washington quit in 2018.The second draft circulated by Washington is virtually unchanged from the first text shared with the council in June.Return of all sanctionsIf the United States is unsuccessful in extending the embargo, it has threatened to trigger a return of all U.N. sanctions on Iran under a process agreed to in the 2015 deal.Such a move would kill the deal, touted as a way to suspend Tehran’s suspected drive to develop nuclear weapons. Washington argues it can trigger the sanctions because a Security Council resolution still names it as a participant.Iran has breached parts of the nuclear deal in response to the U.S. withdrawal and Washington’s reimposition of sanctions.”For as long as Iran is allowed to enrich, we’re going to be having this discussion: How close is Iran to a nuclear breakout? … We need to restore the U.N. Security Council standard of no enrichment,” Hook said.Iran denies it is seeking to build a nuclear bomb.Diplomats say Washington would face a tough, messy battle if it tried to trigger a return to sanctions.The United States would have to submit a complaint to the council, which would then have to vote within 30 days on a resolution to continue Iran’s sanctions relief. If such a resolution is not put forward by the deadline, sanctions would be reimposed — what is known as a snapback.Some diplomats have suggested the United States will submit its complaint by the end of August to ensure the 30 days ends in September, before Russia takes the monthly rotating council presidency in October.
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