Virus continues to spread amid breakthrough

US members of Congress remain divided over a deal to provide more financial relief for Americans as European leaders thrashed out a plan for their pandemic-ravaged economies.

It comes as testing of an experimental vaccine showed it may produce an immune response against the coronavirus.

The urgency of such research is rising with the pandemic still gaining momentum in parts of the US, India and elsewhere in the developing world.

India added more than 37,000 new cases for a national total that now exceeds 1.15 million – the third-highest behind the US, with more than 3.8m, and Brazil, with 2.1m, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

India’s new cases have hovered around 40,000 a day in recent days, with experts warning a series of peaks lie ahead as the virus spreads in rural areas where the healthcare system is weak.

The Indian Council for Medical Research has urged state governments to add more labs and improve testing capacity for the country of 1.4 billion people.

Lebanon’s health minister said the financially troubled country, which had previously managed to contain the coronavirus, was sliding toward a critical stage with a new surge in infections, more than a fifth of them untraceable, after lockdown restrictions were lifted and the airport reopened.

In Asia, the latest virus flare-ups in Australia, South Korea (pictured) and China’s far west appeared to be coming under control.

South Korea reported 45 new virus cases, 25 of them among quarantined people arriving from abroad.

In many Asian countries, most newly reported infections are among those new arrivals, raising hopes that local outbreaks may be under control.