India once again registered more than 78,000 new cases of Covid-19 today, bringing the national count to 37,69,524, according to the Union Ministry of Health. The number of active cases reached 8.01.282 and hospital discharges stood at 29.01.908, a gap of 21.00.626. The death toll reached 66,333 after 1,045 people died from the disease in the past 24 hours. Five states – Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh – have accounted for more than half of total Covid-19 cases and about 60 percent of recoveries, the ministry said Tuesday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported 6,004,443 cases of the coronavirus, an increase of 32,087 from their previous count, and said the death toll had risen from 428 to 183,050. The CDC reported its case count of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by the coronavirus versus its previous report on Monday. CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states. The United States, the world’s leading economy, suffered a 9.5 percent drop in the second quarter after a 1.3 percent drop in the first, according to figures released by the OECD. The United States has reported the highest number of deaths from Covid-19, with more than 180,000 deaths.
Meanwhile, Australia entered its first recession since 1991 after the economy contracted 7 percent in the second quarter, official figures showed on Wednesday, as the country reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. Australia’s Bureau of Statistics said it was the fastest quarterly contraction on record, ending a three-decade streak of economic growth that was unaffected even by the global financial crisis. The office’s head of national accounts, Michael Smedes, said the pandemic and containment efforts were to blame for the “unprecedented” drop that exceeded previous records “by a wide margin.” A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction. Australia’s economy contracted 0.3 percent in the previous three months.
The widely expected result is in line with previous government predictions that gross domestic product would contract by seven percent in April-June. “The June quarter saw a significant contraction in household spending on services as households modified their behavior and restrictions were put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus,” Smedes said. Hours worked fell nearly 10 percent while cash payments for social benefits rose more than 40 percent, both records for the country. Trade was also affected during the quarter: Imports of goods fell 2.4 percent and exports of services fell 18.4 percent, the office’s figures showed. The government has invested tens of billions of dollars to combat the economic consequences of the pandemic. Australia’s forced shutdown earlier in the year crippled the economy and the current shutdown of five million people in Melbourne has compounded its problems.
The country was already recovering from a prolonged drought and massive wildfires that had rocked the economy before the disease hit. Australia has now confirmed nearly 26,000 Covid-19 cases and 663 deaths from the virus, the vast majority in and around Melbourne since July. In July, the government predicted a return to growth in the third quarter as virus restrictions eased. But the closure of non-essential businesses in Melbourne, the country’s second-largest city, could slow the recovery. Authorities expect national unemployment to peak at 9.3 percent in December and the budget deficit to rise to almost a tenth of GDP by mid-2021.
Brazil and India reported historic drops in the second quarter in national economic output this week, a situation seen in almost all major world economies due to the coronavirus pandemic. Only China, where the outbreak was first reported, has escaped a recession.
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