Covid 19 coronavirus: India’s virus death toll skyrockets to rival Brazil

The number of people confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus in India increased by another 80,000 and is close to the total in Brazil, the second highest in the world.

The 83,341 cases added in the last 24 hours brought India’s total to more than 3.9 million, according to the Health Ministry. Brazil has confirmed more than 4 million infections, while the United States has more than 6.1 million infected people, according to Johns Hopkins University.

India’s Health Ministry also reported 1,096 deaths in the past 24 hours on Friday, bringing the total deaths to 68,472.

India’s fatality rate of 1.75 percent is well below the world average of 3.3 percent, the ministry said. Experts have questioned whether some states in India have underestimated the deaths.

India added nearly 2 million coronavirus cases in August alone. Pune, Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai are its worst hit cities, but new hot spots continue to fuel waves of cases in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states.

In a country of 1.4 billion people, only the places most affected by the virus remain closed. People are cramming markets and other public spaces with potential security measures like masks and largely unenforced social distancing.

To justify lifting the lockdown restrictions while infections increase, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that testing capacity has been increased and security procedures have been implemented.

“While lives are important, livelihoods are just as important,” Bhushan said.

India’s economy contracted 23.9 percent in the April-June quarter, its worst performance in at least 24 years.

In other developments in the Asia Pacific region:

– Australian authorities on Friday added 53 previous virus deaths in nursing homes and six new deaths to their tally, bringing the total number of virus deaths to 737. Victoria state officials said they have been reconciling the July figures and August. An outbreak in the city of Melbourne has spread through dozens of nursing homes, leading to hundreds of deaths. The outbreak appears to be slowly decreasing, with Victoria officials reporting 81 new cases on Friday. “This is the stubborn tail of the epidemic curve,” said Brett Sutton, Victoria’s health director. Meanwhile, authorities in New South Wales, home to the largest city, Sydney, reported eight new cases.

– An independent panel appointed by the World Health Organization to review its coordination of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic will have full access to all necessary internal UN agency documents, materials and emails. The co-chairs of the panel are former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark. The other 11 include Dr. Joanne Liu, who was an outspoken critic of the WHO during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and Dr. Zhong Nanshan, a renowned Chinese physician who was the first to publicly confirm person-to-person transmission of the coronavirus. .

– South Korea will extend steep social distancing restrictions in the capital area for another week as it appears to contain a resurgence of the coronavirus that threatens to erase hard-won epidemiological advances. Health Minister Park Neung-hoo announced the decision on Friday after health workers reported 198 new cases of Covid-19, mainly in the Seoul metropolitan area, where about half of the 51 million live. inhabitants of the country. Until next Sunday, restaurants in the capital area will only be able to offer take-out and deliveries after 9:00 p.m. M., As they have been doing since August 30. Indoor sports facilities such as gymnasiums and billiard clubs and extracurricular academies will be closed. Authorities have closed churches and nightspots across the country and have switched most schools to remote learning.

– AP