Czech Republic records 2,139 new cases; India reports world record one-day cases; Trump appointee to take leave after rant likening CDC scientists to ‘resistance’

• CDC director says vaccine won’t be widely available until late 2021
  
• ‘Off the charts’: Ireland’s contact tracers face return of sleepless nights
• Chinese border city enters ‘wartime’ mode to tackle Covid outbreak
• UK coronavirus – live
• See all our coronavirus coverage

9.35am BST

The global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic may take as much as five years, the World Bank’s chief economist Carmen Reinhart has said.

“There will probably be a quick rebound as all the restriction measures linked to lockdowns are lifted, but a full recovery will take as much as five years,” Reinhart said in a speech during a conference held in Madrid.

8.59am BST

The Czech Republic has reported more than 2,000 new Covid cases in a single day for the first time as it battles a surge in infections that is among the fastest in Europe.

The health ministry recorded 2,139 cases of the new coronavirus on Wednesday, up from a previous record of 1,675 reported the previous day, Reuters reports.

‘It would go away without the vaccine,’ Trump says on ABC town hall. India’s total cases pass 5 million; Virus death toll linked to Maine wedding grows to 7; Follow the latest updates

• World still at the beginning of the pandemic, WHO expert warns
• Sweden records its fewest daily cases since March
  
• Covid cases near 30m; China expects vaccine in November
  
• World map: which countries have the most cases and deaths?
  
• See all our coronavirus coverage

5.30am BST

Me, traveling abroad 10 minutes after getting the vaccine: pic.twitter.com/xe2odYxXBT

5.19am BST

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said a vaccine against the deadly coronavirus could be three or four weeks away, underscoring predictions made by US public health officials and Pfizer Inc earlier this month, Reuters reports.

Trump, speaking at a town hall hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia, defended his handling of the coronavirus crisis, and said a vaccine could be ready for distribution soon.

“We’re very close to having a vaccine,” he said. “If you want to know the truth, the previous administration would have taken perhaps years to have a vaccine because of the FDA and all the approvals. And we’re within weeks of getting it you know could be three weeks, four weeks.”

1,542 new cases in Netherlands; Madrid accounts for a third of Spain’s caseload; Trump says ‘herd mentality’ will beat Covid virus

• ‘I up-played it’: Trump disputes own admission on pandemic
  
• Sweden spared European surge as infections stay low
• England: ‘There are no more tests today’
  
• UK coronavirus updates – live
• US coronavirus updates – live

5.26pm BST

The average age of people infected with Covid-19 is coming down, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) expert, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove. She has told a Q&A that incidences of hospitalisation among those aged 15 to 49 years are increasing.

She also said it was possible for the same person to be infected with influenza and Covid-19, adding that the WHO was looking into the prevalence of that.

4.47pm BST

Earlier, we posted that the Czech Republic had reported its highest daily count since the beginning of the pandemic. The country’s health minister, Adam Vojtěch, has told its parliament the government plans to ban stand-up indoor events as of Friday to help stabilise the situation.

Inevitably the numbers in the coming days will be very similar to the current increases.

We have to calculate with that, although we are hoping for a certain decline or at least stabilisation from the measures adopted.

Dutch infections rise by 1,379 in 24 hours; rise in cases in Denmark; global deaths pass 925,000 as cases near 30m

• Covid cases near 30m; China expects vaccine in November
• Foreign Covid workers in France to be fast-tracked for nationality
• World map: which countries have the most cases and deaths?
  
• See all our coronavirus coverage

2.05pm BST

As cases continue to rise in the Netherlands, the Dutch government has said it will maintain heavy public spending in an effort to counter the losses from the pandemic despite its finances worsening.

In his annual speech outlining the government’s new budget on Tuesday, King Willem-Alexander said:

In these insecure times, the government chooses not to cut spending, but to invest, in job security, social safety nets and a stronger economy.”

1.44pm BST

New coronavirus cases in the Netherlands have hit a daily record of 1,379 in the past 24 hours, according to Dutch daily newspaper de Volkskrant.

On Monday, health authorities in the country recorded 1,300 new infections, it said.