U.S. COVID-19 Cases Nears Six Million; India in Top Three Worldwide.
CHURCH: Thousands of protesters were back out in Belarus Sunday demanding President Alexander Lukashenko's resignation. They scuffled with police and protest that began, in part, over the president's dismissal of the coronavirus. Protesters also claimed the August 9th election was rigged. A convoy of at least eight military tanks moved through Minsk on Sunday amid those protests. And in another sign of the president's unease, he was seen again on Sunday holding a rifle. He and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Moscow in the coming weeks. Well, a day after the world topped 25 million COVID-19 cases, the worst hit country is fast approaching another milestone. The U.S. is closing in on the six million case mark. That's according to Johns Hopkins University. This, as several prominent U.S. physicians are calling for an independent commission to review potential COVID-19 vaccines. They fear that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could give the OK for one before it's safe to do so. But while the White House Coronavirus response coordinator is hopeful for a vaccine, Dr. Deborah Birx says she is convinced community spread can be stopped right now.</s>DEBORAH BIRX, COORDINATOR, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: Don't wait for a vaccine to do the right thing. Do the right thing today. If we do the right thing today -- because if we do the right thing today, we go into the fall with much fewer cases. Right now, we gained freedom through wearing our masks, and socially distancing. With a vaccine, it's a very different potential interaction for all of us. And so, yes, I'm hopeful for a vaccine, but I'm also very convinced right now that we can stop community spread by wearing a mask, socially distancing, and avoiding crowds.</s>CHURCH: Meanwhile, colleges are struggling to contain outbreaks of COVID-19, and some return to in-person classes. The University of Alabama alone is reporting 1,200 cases since classes last started little over two weeks ago. CNN's Natasha Chen has more.</s>NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's now been more than seven months since the first coronavirus cases reported in the United States. And since then, more than 180,000 people in this country have died of COVID-19. If you look at the newly reported cases in the last seven days, compared to the previous week, 18 states in the United States are seeing an increase, 23 states are holding steady, and nine states are seeing a decrease. One of those nine states is Florida. Their seven-day average of new cases has come down significantly since mid-July. And on Sunday, the state reported its lowest daily death record since late June. And Georgia was blasted by the White House Coronavirus Task Force report earlier this month for not doing enough to curb the spread of the virus. But Georgia now has also seen a significant decrease in its seven-day average of new cases since early August. And on Sunday, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported under 1,300 new coronavirus cases, the lowest since late June. Now last week, the CDC revised its guidance raising the bar on who should get tested for COVID-19, saying, that some people with no symptoms they may not need a test. Still, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control release a statement on Sunday emphasizing the importance of testing, saying that people with mild or no symptoms should still get tested as they could easily transmit the virus to other people. Natasha Chen, CNN, Atlanta.</s>CHURCH: Australia's worse hit state reported a record daily rise and COVID-19 deaths on Monday. Health officials in Victoria say 41 additional people have died there. The new deaths come as Victoria posted its lowest daily rise in new coronavirus cases since July 3rd. Only 73 new COVID-19 infections were reported in the past 24 hours. Well, India has just surpassed Mexico for the third highest coronavirus death toll in the world. And as CNN's Vedika Sud reports, the battle against COVID in India is far from over.</s>VEDIKA SUD, CNN PRODUCER: India has surpassed 3.6 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. Over the last five days India has been reporting more than 75,000 new infections on a daily basis. We know that India stands at the third position when it comes to the most affected countries across the world, but it is now reporting the third highest number of confirmed deaths across the globe as well after the U.S. and Brazil. Now one of the main reasons why we're seeing a surge of new infections in India is because of the aggressive testing that is taking place. (Technical difficulty) remain grim, the government of India has announced that reopening, phase four of reopening across the country, which means the easing of restrictions that have been in place. Now one of the main announcements made is that the metro rail services will resume in a graded manner. In the capital of India, New Delhi itself, 1.5 million people on an average use the metro rail service on a given day. But since it's going to be reopening in a graded manner, of course, the number of people operating through the rail services, the metro services will be less. Now India has a fatality rate which is below 2 percent, when compared to other countries it is relatively much lower. One of the reasons according to medical experts for this is that India has a relatively younger population than most countries. Vedika Sud, CNN, New Delhi.</s>CHURCH: Meanwhile, in Brazil, a case study in how Latin American countries are finding it hard to get a handle on the pandemic. It's reporting 16,000 new cases, bringing its count to nearly four million along with more than 120,000 fatalities. Only the U.S. has more of either. Brazil is one of five Latin American countries currently among the 10 hardest nations in the world. Well, other Latin American countries also reported high number of infections on Sunday. In Columbia, more than 8,000 new cases and 300 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours. The country now has the third highest infection rate in Latin America, surpassing Mexico. Meanwhile, over 4,000 new cases were reported in Mexico bringing the country's total to nearly 600,000. Well, the city of Portland is on edge after violence erupted over the weekend. Both U.S. President Donald Trump and his rival Joe Biden are weighing in on the growing unrest. Their messages, next. Plus, White House senior adviser, Jared Kushner in the Middle East. How he might be looking to boost his father-in-law reelection efforts. That's ahead. And we are looking there at live pictures.