A record number of new confirmed coronavirus cases were recorded worldwide on Saturday, with more than 250,000 cases reported, the World Health Organization said.
It was the first time that the number of new infections in a single day exceeded a quarter of a million, the health agency added, with 259,848 registered cases.
The United States, Brazil, South Africa and India, which have reached more than a million cases on Friday, reported the largest increases.
The previous record, set 24 hours earlier, was 237,743 cases.
The WHO said the number of global deaths was close to 600,000. She said 7,360 new deaths were recorded worldwide on Saturday, the largest daily increase since early May.
The grim milestone comes amid concerns about the virus’s reappearance in Asia and Europe.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Sunday that the city has registered more than 100 new cases, in a one-day record for the semi-autonomous territory.
Calling the situation “critical,” he said there were no signs “that the situation is being controlled.”
The city has been dealing with the third peak of the coronavirus epidemic since early July, with an increasing number of locally transmitted infections.
Lam said the social distancing measures announced last week will run for another 7 days until at least July 29, and that nonessential public officials will work from home starting Monday to help stop the spread of the virus.
He added that he would ask the justice department to consider extending the mandatory facial mask requirement on public transportation to include all indoor public places.
In mainland China, where the pandemic is believed to have started, 16 new cases of coronavirus were reported on Sunday, 13 of them in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region in the far west of China.
The city entered “war mode” on Saturday, with no mass meetings allowed and closed residential communities, according to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Government Information Office.
Meanwhile, in Spain, which has suffered one of the worst outbreaks in Europe, the authorities urged 4 million people in the north-eastern region of Catalonia, including residents of Barcelona, to stay home in the strongest measure to stop the spread of the virus since the country emerged. of a nationwide state of emergency last month.
Gatherings of more than 10 people have been banned because most infections stem from social gatherings, according to local health officials.
Barcelona police closed access to a large area of the city’s beaches on Saturday after many bathers ignored the authorities’ request to stay home, the Associated Press reported.
Elsewhere, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that some 25 million Iranians may have been infected with coronavirus, as the government re-imposed restrictions in the capital and elsewhere.
The figure, from a report Rouhani quoted in a televised speech, corresponds to nearly 30 percent of Iran’s 85 million people.
However, Mostafa Qanei, head of Iran’s coronavirus scientific committee, clarified in a subsequent interview that Rouhani’s comment is based on research by the health ministry that estimates that 25 million have been in contact with the virus, developing mild symptoms and without hospitalization.
In Australia, residents of the country’s second-largest city, Melbourne, must now wear masks when leaving their homes amid a surge in cases.
The state of Victoria, which is the capital of Melbourne, has forced nearly 5 million people to a six-week partial lockdown at the beginning of their month. State health officials reported 363 new cases on Sunday, after 217 cases the day before.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison delayed the opening of parliament for several weeks on Saturday as the number of infections increased.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Justin Solomon and Amin Hossein Khodadadi contributed
