Tokyo's Olympic Village was hit by a fourth coronavirus case on Monday and major sponsor Toyota said it would not run any Games-related TV ads as the event struggled for support just days before the opening ceremony.

A Czech beach volleyball player became the fourth case and the third infected athlete in the Village, where thousands of competitors are living in a bio secure "bubble".

Iran on Monday announced strict curbs in the capital Tehran and a nearby province to stem the spread of Covid-19, as daily infections drew close to an all-time high.

President Hassan Rouhani had earlier this month warned of a "fifth wave" because of an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant in the Middle East's hardest-hit country.

Top U.S. scientist Anthony Fauci on Saturday blasted commentators who sound an anti-vaccination theme, saying America might still be battling smallpox and polio if today's kind of misinformation existed back then.

Hajj pilgrims streamed out of the holy city of Mecca Sunday, launching the rituals of the great pilgrimage which Saudi Arabia is holding in a scaled-down form for a second year to ward off coronavirus.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will undertake "only essential government business" in the week ahead after he was designated a close contact of a person infected with Covid, Downing Street said Sunday.

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

- Five-fold rise? -The EU's disease agency predicts a sharp increase in cases, with nearly five times as many new infections by August 1. 

The Eiffel Tower reopened to visitors on Friday after nine months of shutdown caused by the Covid pandemic, the landmark's longest closure since World War II.

The lifts of the "Iron Lady" again whisked tourists to its 300-metre (1,000-foot) summit and its majestic views of the French capital as a marching band played.

Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan said Friday the government would scrap subsidies on medicines costing less than 12,000 Lebanese pounds to shore up foreign currency reserves.

Hassan affirmed that the list of subsidized medicines includes medicines for chronic diseases, children’s formula milk, vaccines, as well as medicines to treat psychiatric and neurological diseases.

Pharmacies have announced an open-ended strike as of Friday over medicine shortages, “until the Ministry of Health approves the price indexes and provides protection for pharmacies.”

Pharmacists have been facing “daily harassments” that can be “life threatening” as a result of the shortage of medicines in pharmacies, the association of pharmacy owners stated.

The World Health Organization's emergency committee warned Thursday that new concerning variants of Covid-19 were expected to spread around the world, making it even harder to halt the pandemic.

"The pandemic is nowhere near finished," the committee said in a statement, highlighting "the strong likelihood for the emergence and global spread of new and possibly more dangerous variants of concern that may be even more challenging to control."