Paris: The number of cases of coronavirus recorded worldwide has passed 5.25 million, more than two thirds of them in Europe and the United States, according to an AFP tally at 1650 GMT Saturday.
There are now 5,250,658 cases officially recorded, with 339,172 deaths attributed to the virus. Europe is the hardest-hit continent, with 2,003,510 cases and 173,186 deaths, while the United States is the worst-hit country, with 1,604,879 cases and 96,125 deaths.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.
Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.
India’s cases cross 125,000
India saw the biggest rise in coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours at 6,654 with the total count of cases going up to over 125,000 on Saturday.
The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 has gone up to 3,720 with 137 persons succumbing to the disease in the last 24 hours, Health Ministry said.
The total number of cases stands at 1,25,101 of which 69,597 are active cases and 51,784 are “cured/discharged/migrated”. Maharashtra continues to remain the worst-affected state with 44,582 COVID-19 cases followed by Tamil Nadu (15,512), Gujarat (13,268) and Delhi (12,910).
Spain to reopen to tourists
In Europe, which has now registered more than two million infections, the figures were stabilising in many countries, prompting governments to move away from economically ruinous lockdowns towards lighter social distancing measures.
In Spain, which has enforced one of the world’s strictest lockdowns since mid-March, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced the resumption of tourism and football.
“From the month of July, entry for foreign tourists into Spain will resume in secure conditions,” he said, adding that La Liga football could return on June 8.
Trump determined to reopen economy
The United States, meanwhile, still faces the world’s worst outbreak, but President Donald Trump is determined to reopen the economy despite the risk of further infections and deaths.
His latest demand was that local officials should reopen religious buildings for full services, saying: “In America, we need more prayer, not less.”
The US economy has shed almost 40 million jobs since the start of the pandemic and many companies have gone to the wall – car-rental giant Hertz the latest to hit trouble, filing for bankruptcy for its North American operations late on Friday.
But city mayors and state governors say it is too early to lift the measures.
South America labelled “a new epicentre”
“In a sense, South America has become a new epicentre for the disease,” WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said on Friday, singling out Brazil, the death toll of which crossed 21,000 on Friday.
Neighbouring Peru was also struggling with an outbreak – the country of 32 million registering more than 110,000 cases and 3,100 deaths.
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