Image source, Getty Images

South Korea has approved the import of remdesivir, a drug that appears to shorten recovery time for people with coronavirus.

Remdesivir cut the duration of symptoms from 15 days down to 11 in clinical trials at hospitals around the world.

The drug is already approved for treatment of Covid-19 in the US, Japan and India.

Scientists around the world are rushing to develop a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 or a treatment for Covid-19, the illness resulting from infection.

Remdesivir is an anti-viral medicine that has been used against Ebola. Other drugs being investigated include medication used for malaria and HIV.

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

Image source, Zoom

When it comes to its growth rate, video conference company Zoom has lived up to its name.

Use of the firm's software jumped 30-fold in April, as the coronavirus pandemic forced millions to work, learn and socialise remotely.

At its peak, the firm counted more than 300 million daily participants in virtual meetings, while paying customers have more than tripled.

Zoom said it expects sales as high as $1.8bn (£1.4bn) this year - roughly double what it forecast in March.

• Read Natalie's full piece on the Zoom boom

The Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is speaking on the just-released GDP figures - which showed a 0.3% contraction in the first three months of the year.

This was inevitable given the impact of the virus and ongoing drought and bushfire effects. But because Australia has dealt so well with the virus on the health front - essentially flattening the curve in March and April - the economic hit may not be as bad as predicted, he says.

Nonetheless, June figures are expected to show GDP fall over 10%, and unemployment around that level too.

The nation is certain to enter a recession (two quarters of GDP decline) on those numbers.

But with the country exiting lockdown last month and re-opening businesses, household spending is slowly rebounding, the Treasurer says.

The local share market is recovering, the Australian dollar has regained its losses, and most importantly, tourism and other service industries are kicking back into life.

"It's a challenging time but the economy is holding up comparatively well to other nations," says Frydenberg.

"What we were facing was an economist's version of Armageddon. We have avoided the economic fate, and the health fate, of other nations because of the measures we took."

Image source, EPA

Brazil has registered another record number of new daily coronavirus deaths. The 1,262 new fatalities put its overall death toll at 31,199.

The jump comes as several major cities start to open back up. In Rio people were seen on the beaches and in Sao Paulo some commerce has opened.

Marcos Espinal, director of the Pan American Health Organization, said it was difficult to see how the virus would be contained in Brazil unless restrictive measures and more testing were used.

Brazil has 555,383 confirmed infections, second only to the US. The country is deeply divided over how to respond to the crisis, with health specialists and local governors arguing for a lockdown while President Jair Bolsonaro says an economic crisis would be more harmful than the virus itself.

Image source, AFP

A 71-year old man has become the first Rohingya living in the refugee camps in south-east Bangaldesh to die of coronavirus.

The man died in an isolation centre run by the medical charity MSF. He had been living in Kutupalong, the largest of the camps in Cox's Bazar district bordering Myanmar.

So far at least 29 Rohingya refugees have been confirmed to have the coronavirus in the most densely populated refugee camp in the world. Officials say only 339 tests have been done.

"We are living in fear about what we are going to do if there is a big outbreak," refugee Mohammed Rafiq told Reuters.

"It is a ticking time bomb," says Alejandro Agustin Cuyar of Relief International. "Once the virus takes hold, it will be incredibly challenging to flatten the curve, so we are gravely concerned the numbers needing treatment will soon be overwhelming."

Nearly a million Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar are living in Bangladesh.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, CCTV

The death of a front-line doctor in China is provoking a backlash against the government's handling of the virus. Dr Hu Weifeng passed away on 2 June, after a months-long fight with Covid-19.

The news has triggered an outpouring of anger on Chinese social media sites.

He and a colleague made headlines in March, when their skin turned black "due to liver dysfunction" during the treatment.

They became known as "the two black-faced Wuhan doctors", and won nationwide praise for fighting back against the virus, as both had been critically ill.

The Communist Youth League called them "angels who had fought with death", and Weibo users sympathised with how much they had to endure.

• Click here to read our full analysis

Image source, Getty Images

Panic buying was a phenomenon in many countries in the first stages of the virus lockdown – you’ll remember that staples such as toilet paper, pasta and rice were all hard to get hold of.

But researchers have now assessed that Australians were most caught up in the rush – and for seemingly no good reason. Supermarket sales jumped 20% in March – the biggest increase on record.

“The experience of Australia is notable for the incredible speed and scale with which panic took hold," the University of New South Wales team found.

"Unlike in other countries, the escalation in panic does not appear to correspond with any significant increase in domestic Covid-19 cases."

• Why did people fixate on toilet paper?

Instead they argue that Australians, watching the crisis unfold in Italy and the US at the time, were reacting to overseas restrictions and the country’s borders being shut.

The researchers created the "Panic Index" from Google search data across 56 countries.

People from ethnic minorities are at a higher risk of dying from Covid-19, an official report in the UK says, external.

It shows age remains the biggest risk factor, while being male is another.

The impact of Covid-19 is "disproportionate" for Asian, Caribbean and black ethnicities, however - and we don't yet know why.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the "troubling" report was "timely" because "right across the world people are angry about racial injustice".

• Click here to read our full story on this

Australia's GDP shrank 0.3% for the first three months of the year due to bushfires and the early stages of the virus's impact, official data released this morning shows.

That means the country - which has been quite successful in containing the virus - will sink into its first recession in 29 years. The government has warned Australians to brace themselves.

The March quarter figures take into account the preliminary impact of border and business closures. But it's the June quarter results which will show the greater impact - the treasury has estimated a GDP hit of over 10% - which would be the largest fall on record.

The unemployment rate is also expected to reach over 10%. More than a quarter of Australia's workforce is currently on some form of welfare.

Image source, GEt

Image source, Reuters

As Europe gradually eases lockdowns and restrictions, Italy will open its borders to tourists from most other European countries in a few hours.

Travel restrictions within the country will also be lifted, so people can move freely between different regions.

"We're facing a calculated risk in the knowledge that the contagion curve may rise again," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in May when announcing the plans. "We have to accept it otherwise we will never be able to start up again."

Tourism is vital for Italy's economy but had come to a complete standstill during the virus crisis. Some landmarks like the Colosseum in Rome have already opened over the past days.

Italy has been one of Europe's worst-hit countries with more than 230,000 infections and 33,500 deaths.

Welcome back to our rolling coverage of the global coronavirus crisis. We’ll be keeping you posted on all developments from around the world as the day moves from Asia across Europe and Africa to the Americas.

Here’s what you need to know this morning:

• Italy is getting ready to open its borders today to travellers from most European countries. It's also lifting domestic travel restrictions between regions
• Across Europe, new cases are steadily declining, the World Health Organization says. The only exceptions are Russia and other Eastern European countries where infection rates remain high
• In the UK, a study has found that people from the black and Asian minorities are at a much higher risk of dying if ill with Covid-19. The UK death toll is now close to 40,000
• In Brazil, the death toll has moved beyond 30,000. The country is the worst-hit in Latin America, the world’s current hotspot of the pandemic
• India has registered a new record daily spike of fresh infections, even as restrictions ease