Coronavirus LIVE Updates: As India created a global record yesterday with the highest single-day rise of nearly 79,000 Covid-19 cases, in some respite, the country also recorded the last 5 lakh recoveries in just eight days in comparison to preceding 5 lakh recoveries which were recorded in 10 and 9 days. India yesterday set a record when it reported 78,761 new infections in 24 hours — the world’s highest single-day rise — even as it continued to open up the economy. Home to 1.3 billion people, India is already the world’s third-most infected nation with more than 3.5 million cases, behind the US and Brazil. It has also reported more than 63,000 deaths, according to the official health ministry toll. The US set the previous record on July 17 with 77,638 daily infections, according to an AFP tally. In his regular monthly radio address on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not comment on the milestone but called on Indians to observe health safety measures. “It is important that every citizen is healthy and happy and we defeat coronavirus completely together,” PM Modi said. “Corona(virus) can only be defeated when you remain safe, when you fulfil the resolve of keeping a safe distance of two yards and wearing masks.”
Experts warn that while a ramp up in testing in recent months was encouraging, more needed to be done to capture the scale of the pandemic in the world’s second-most populous nation. The virus has badly hit megacities such as financial hub Mumbai and the capital New Delhi, but is now also surging in smaller cities and rural areas. “Testing per million in India at 30,000 remains the second lowest in top 10 (virus-infected) countries. Mexico is lowest at about 10,000,” virologist Shahid Jameel, who heads the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, told AFP Sunday. “We are still finding one positive in every 11 to 12 tests. This number should be one in 20 simply and means that testing is still sub-optimal and the outbreak is growing.” Doctor Hemant Shewade, a Bangalore-based community medicine expert, added that India also needed to focus on reducing deaths — the fourth-highest in the world according to a tally by John Hopkins University.
Meanwhile, the United States neared six million coronavirus cases on Sunday, nearly a quarter of the planet’s total, as nations around the world battle to contain the raging pandemic. Global coronavirus infections soared past 25 million, as countries tightened restrictions to halt the health crisis that has upended life for most of humanity. A million additional cases have been detected globally roughly every four days since mid-July, according to an AFP tally. The world’s hardest hit country, the United States, had recorded 5.99 million cases of infection as of 0030 GMT Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker. And the death toll is just over 183,000. The US hit five million cases three weeks ago, just 17 days after reaching four million, the tracker said. The virus has hobbled the US economy, the world’s largest, and cast a shadow over President Donald Trump’s once-promising re-election prospects.
As Trump faces enormous pressure to curb the contagion, the head of the US Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn, raised the possibility that a still-elusive vaccine might be given emergency approval before the end of trials designed to ensure its safety and effectiveness. The virus has proven a tenacious foe even in nations such as New Zealand and South Korea, which had previously brought their outbreaks largely under control but are now battling new clusters of infections. On the other side of the world, Latin America — the worst-hit region — is still struggling with its first wave, with Covid-19 deaths in Brazil crossing 120,000, second only to the United States.
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