India has reported another record 24-hour jump in COVID-19 cases as the WHO cautioned against the country’s plans to release a vaccine by next month.
The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare yesterday added 24,850 confirmed cases, bringing the nationwide total to 673,165, making India the fourth-hardest hit country in the world behind the US, Brazil and Russia.
India’s death toll rose to 19,268.
The Indian Council of Medical Research, the agency leading the country’s COVID-19 response, last week said that it had set Aug. 15 — India’s independence day — as a target for developing a COVID-19 vaccine and asked clinical trial investigators to enroll participants by tomorrow.
WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan on Saturday said in an interview with India’s online newspaper The Wire that more realistically, some phase 1 results would be available by next month “if all goes according to plan.”
As for other regions in the Asia-Pacific, the hard-hit Australian state of Victoria has recorded 74 new COVID-19 cases after announcing a record 108 new infections on Saturday.
That increase resulted in Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews announcing a lockdown of nine inner-city public housing blocks containing 3,000 people, where 27 cases have been detected.
Police are guarding every entrance of the housing estates and residents are not allowed to leave their homes for any reason.
Andrews said that the residents would have their rent waived for the next two weeks and would receive one-off hardship payments of A$750 to A$1,500 (US$521 to US$1,042).
The government said it would arrange the delivery of food and medical supplies to all homes.
Australian Medical Association president Tony Bartone called for a temporary halt to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions across the country after the surge in Victoria.
South Korea has recorded 60-plus COVID-19 cases for a third consecutive day as the virus spread beyond greater Seoul.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday that it has confirmed 61 additional cases, bringing the national total to 13,091.
The death toll remains the same at 283.
Forty-three of the newly reported cases were locally infected, while the other 18 were linked to international arrivals, the agency said.
Forty-one of the 43 cases were either from the Seoul metropolitan area or two central cities, Gwangju and Daejeon, it said.
China yesterday reported eight new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the previous 24-hour period, as a recent outbreak in Beijing appeared to have largely run its course.
The Chinese capital had two new cases, the seventh straight day of single-digit increases.
Authorities have confirmed 334 infections during the outbreak, which was detected about three weeks ago and is the largest in the country since March. No one has died, although a few people were reported to be in a critical condition.
“The situation ... keeps improving and is completely controllable,” Beijing city spokesman Xu Hejian (徐鶴健) told a news conference on Saturday.
The six cases outside Beijing were people arriving from abroad.
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