Reuters reports that Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Monday he would go into quarantine for 14 days after coming into contact with a minister who had tested positive for Covid-19.
The 73-year-old premier said he had been at a meeting on Saturday with religious affairs minister Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri to discuss the country's rising number of coronavirus infections.
Zulkifli tested positive two days later on Monday, the prime minister said. He added that all his own tests so far had come out negative.
Other senior officials at the same meeting included the security minister, the health ministry's director general and the chiefs of the police and defence forces, state news agency Bernama reported. Everyone who attended would be tested, the health ministry said.
The Southeast Asian country has seen a steady climb in coronavirus cases following last month's election in the state of Sabah - the site of an early cluster of cases. Malaysia reported 432 new cases on Monday, a new daily record.
Russia calls for examining US moves "against the WHO"
Reuters reports that Russia called on Monday for an evaluation of the legal and financial repercussions of the Trump administration announcing the US withdrawal from the World Health Organisation (WHO) next July.
Russia's delegation, addressing a two-day meeting of WHO's Executive Board, said: "We need to analyse legal procedures and administrative and financial procedures regarding steps taken by the United States against the WHO."
The United States will not pay some $80 million it owes the WHO and will instead redirect the money to help pay its United Nations bill in New York, a U.S. official said on 2 September.
Lithuanian foreign minister self-isolating after French visit
Reuters reports that tech giant Nvidia said on Monday it is building Britain's most powerful supercomputer, which will use artificial intelligence to help researchers solve pressing medical challenges, including those related to Covid-19.
GSK and AstraZeneca, which are both involved in coronavirus vaccine research, will be two of the first pharmaceutical companies to harness the power of the machine, Nvidia said.
The Cambridge-1 computer, which is expected to come online by the end of the year in Cambridge, east England, will be a NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD system capable of delivering more than 400 petaflops of AI performance, the company said.
That would mean it ranks 29th on the Top 500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers, it said.
Cambridge is also home to Arm, the British chip designer that Nvidia has agreed to buy from Japan's SoftBank for $40 billion.
Nvidia has previously said it intended to create an AI Center of Excellence in the university city, featuring an Arm-based supercomputer, which will serve as a hub of collaboration for researchers, scientists and startups across the UK.
Paris cafes to shut as Europe confronts second virus wave