India reports global daily record of new infections
As second wave of pandemic hits some parts of the country, it is set to pass Brazil as the second most affected nation by infections
NEW DELHI: India added more than 90,000 coronavirus cases yesterday, a global daily record. The Ministry of Health and Famlily Welfare recorded 90,632 new cases in 24 hours, while the number of deaths rose by 1,065 to 70,626.
The country is set to pass Brazil today as the second most affected country by total infections and will be behind only the United States, which has 6.4 million cases and nearly 193,000 deaths.
Coronavirus cases in India have reached 4.1 million and about 3.2 million affected people have been treated so far, government data showed.
Medical experts said the nation was seeing a second wave of the pandemic in some parts of the country, and that case numbers have surged because of increased testing and the easing of restrictions on public movement. The government will partially restore metro train services in the national capital of New Delhi from today.
The virus has spread from big cities to other parts of the country, said Randeep Guleria, director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, and he added that the number of cases could continue to rise before the curve flattens out.
India has logged the world's largest daily coronavirus case load for almost a month even as its government pushes to open businesses to revive a contracting economy.
AUSTRALIA
Meanwhile, Australia's state of Victoria yesterday extended a hard lockdown in its capital Melbourne until Sept 28, as the infection rate has declined more slowly than hoped.
"We cannot open up at this time. If we were to, we would lose control very quickly," State Premier Daniel Andrews said yesterday.
The hard lockdown was ordered on Aug 2 in response to a second wave of infections that erupted in Melbourne.
Australia's second most populous state has been the epicentre of a second wave of the coronavirus, now accounting for about 75 per cent of the country's 26,282 cases and 90 per cent of its 753 deaths.
Victoria yesterday reported 63 new cases and five deaths, down from a peak of 725 new cases on Aug 5. By contrast, Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, has had no more than 13 cases a day since early last month.
Melbourne's stage 4 restrictions, which had been due to end next Sunday, shut most of the economy, limited people's movements to a tight zone around their homes for an hour a day and imposed a night-time curfew.
South Korea yesterday reported the smallest rise in infections in three weeks, remaining under 200 for a fourth consecutive day as tighter restrictions cap a second wave. The country reported 167 cases for the 24 hours through midnight on Saturday, down from 168 the previous day.
That brings its total infections to 21,177 with 334 deaths. - REUTERS
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