India has become the third country to pass 4 million COVID-19 infections, setting a new record daily surge in cases on Saturday as the pandemic showed no sign of peaking.
The new cases took India to 4,113,811 infections, third behind the US, which has almost 6.3 million, and just trailing Brazil on more than 4.12 million.
India has eased restrictions in a bid to revive the economy, but faces the world’s fastest growing number of cases at more than 80,000 a day and the highest daily death toll at more than 1,000. The death toll now stands at 70,626.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The pandemic is now spreading through rural areas that have poor health facilities, but is also surging again in big cities like Delhi and Mumbai.
The country’s caseload has soared from 3 million to 4 million in just 13 days, faster than the US and Brazil.
As governments around the world enforce measures to slow the virus, Australian officials yesterday extended a strict virus lockdown of the country’s second-biggest city by two weeks, saying that new cases had not dropped enough to prevent another spike.
Melbourne residents were due to exit a harsh six-week lockdown next weekend, but face continued restrictions for months to come, with Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews saying that the lockdown would remain in place until Sept. 28.
“If we open up too fast then we have a very high likelihood that we are not really opening up at all — we are just beginning a third wave,” he told a news conference. “And we will be back in and out of restrictions, coming in and out of lockdown, before the end of the year.”
Just 63 new cases and five deaths were recorded in Victoria yesterday, after peaking above 700 at the height of the outbreak, but local health officials are taking a cautious approach.
Hopes of a return to normality this month have been dashed, with an overnight curfew, restrictions on visitors to homes and a limit on traveling more than 5km set to remain in place until at least Oct. 26.
Announcing the roadmap for the easing of restrictions, Andrews said that rushing to experience a “brief period of sunshine” would likely lead to the virus again spiraling out of control.
Separately on Saturday, several thousand people rallied in the main square of the Croatian capital, Zagreb, to protest against coronavirus curbs.
They carried banners proclaiming: “Covid is a lie, we are not all covidiots,” and “Take off the mask, turn off the TV, live a full life.”
In Rome, About 1,000 protesters demonstrated against the mandatory use of masks.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte reacted frostily to the event, saying: “More than 274,000 ill and 35,000 dead. Full stop.”
Meanwhile, Iran on Saturday reopened the school year after nearly six months, with about 15 million pupils returning to class, mostly remotely.
Iran’s outbreak is the deadliest in the Middle East, with 22,154 killed and 384,666 infected since February.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appeared in a video to inaugurate the new academic year at a school — a break with tradition that drew criticism.
“Rouhani rang the bell [to start the school year] remotely, then he expects me to send my son in person?” reformist journalist Maziar Khosravi tweeted.
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