The global death toll from the coronavirus is more than 687,000, with nearly 18 million infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the respiratory illness.
Here's a roundup of COVID-19 developments in RFE/RL's broadcast regions.
Kosovo
Kosovar Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti has tested positive for COVID-19, the latest world leader or official to catch the potentially deadly illness.
Avdullah said on August 2 that he has a mild cough but no other signs of symptoms commonly associated with COVID-19.
"From tonight, I will be in isolation for the next two weeks. I will perform my obligations from home," he added in a Facebook post.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Brasil's President Jair Bolsonaro, and Prince Albert II of Monaco are among the other leaders and officials who have contracted COVID-19.
There have been nearly 18 million registered cases of COVID-19 worldwide with nearly 700,000 people succumbing to the illness.
Many of those who have died from the coronavirus had underlying health conditions or were elderly.
Kosovo has experienced an increase in cases and deaths over the past four days, with more than 953 new cases and 53 fatalities.
Iran
Iranian officials said on August 2 that the latest one-day rise in confirmed coronavirus infections there was the highest in nearly a month.
Home to the Middle East's worst COVID-19 outbreak after the pathogen emerged in central China late last year, Iran has seen a gradual return of cases in the holy city of Qom and other population centers that were hard hit in the initial stages of the pandemic.
AFP quoted Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari as saying 2,685 people had tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, the highest count since July 8.
She called the epidemiological situation "concerning" in 25 of Iran's 31 provinces.
Iran has the ninth-most infections of any country at more than 306,000. The resulting disease, COVID-19, has killed nearly 17,000 Iranians, the 10th-highest death toll in the world.
Iranian media also reported that 79-year-old filmmaker Khosro Sinai had died of the virus on August 1.
Sinai, perhaps best-known for his film Long Live, was the first Iranian film director to win an international prize after the country's 1979 revolution.
Even with the local outbreak taking a worrisome trajectory, Iran's main stock exchange eclipsed the 2-million-point mark for the first time in its history on August 2, according to local media.
Analysts warn that the Tehran Stock Exchange's stubborn rise risks leaving investors exposed to a market bubble, AFP said, against a backdrop of slumping economic indicators and exchange-rate woes from the coronavirus outbreak and pressures from U.S. sanctions.
Iran's clerical leadership has been encouraging Iranians to invest in local stocks to boost the economy.