Irans president says an estimated 25 million people in the country could be infected with the coronavirus, way above the countrys official rate, as the World Health Organization reported a record daily increase of new cases of more 270,000.

Hassan Rouhani told a summit of the countrys coronavirus taskforce on Saturday that the health ministry estimated about 25 million Iranians might have contracted the virus and warned up to 35 million more might become infected in the months ahead.

The method by which the figure was derived was not disclosed, but the estimate gave an insight into the scale of the outbreak in the worst-hit country in the Middle East, with 270,000 confirmed cases and at least 13,979 deaths.

Rouhanis deputy head of communications, Alireza Moezi, added on Twitter that the 25-million estimate referred to those who have encountered the virus and achieved complete immunity.

We have to consider the possibility that 30 to 35 million more may face infection, Rouhani told a televised meeting of the task-force. We have not yet achieved herd immunity and we have no choice but to be united and break the chain of transmission of the coronavirus.

Iran refrained from fully locking down its population of 81 million but closed schools, cancelled public gatherings and banned movement between provinces in March. It lifted most of the restrictions a month later to relieve the impact of the closures on its ailing economy.

Australia postponed the next sitting of its national parliament as cases continued to surge in and around its second-largest city, Melbourne. A second lockdown has been imposed on the southern state of Victoria, weeks after the initial wave of restrictions was lifted and community transmission briefly appeared to have been eradicated.

The national body will be suspended for two weeks to account for the risk of politicians in Victoria spreading the virus to the capital, Canberra, and the surrounding state of New South Wales, the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, said on Saturday.

The risks posed by a parliamentary sitting are significantly higher and unlikely to be resolved in the next month, he said.

As the global count of cases being tracked by Johns Hopkins University crossed 14m, with nearly 600,000 deaths, France announced that masks would be made mandatory in enclosed public spaces including banks, shops and indoor markets starting on Monday.

The reproduction rate of the virus in the Brittany region has risen sharply in the past weeks, raising fears the virus may be regaining momentum in the country.

The WHO reported the greatest daily increase in global cases, with the total rising by 237,743 in the 24 hours to Saturday. The biggest increases were reported in the US, Brazil, India and South Africa.

Cases in the US grew by more than 76,000, a record for the worlds worst-hit country.

In a lecture for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, delivered online, the UN secretary-general Antnio Guterres said the pandemic had revealed, like an x-ray, fractures in the fragile skeleton of the societies we have built.

It is exposing fallacies and falsehoods everywhere: the lie that free markets can deliver healthcare for all; the fiction that unpaid care work is not work; the delusion that we live in a post-racist world; the myth that we are all in the same boat, said Guterres, a former Socialist prime minister of Portugal.

He added that the coronavirus outbreak had created a generational opportunity to build a more equal, sustainable world. Because while we are all floating on the same sea, its clear that some are in superyachts while others are clinging to the floating debris, Guterres said.

The UN has appealed for $10.3bn (8.2bn) to help poor states, but has received only $1.7bn.

China launched mass health screenings in the western Xinjiang province after a spike in cases raised fears of a fresh outbreak. Flights into the regional capital rmqi were suspended along with the citys subway services after 17 cases were found on Saturday.

The whole city has entered a wartime state, and will suspend all kinds of group activities, state media quoted an official giving a briefing.

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Global report: WHO reports record daily increase of coronavirus cases - The Guardian