Coronavirus LIVE Updates: India saw a record single-day jump of 38,902 COVID-19 cases, pushing its tally to 10,77,618 today, while the total number of recoveries increased to 6,77,422, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The death toll due to the disease rose to 26,816 with new 543 fatalities even as 23,672 patients have recuperated in the past 24 hours, the highest so far in a day, the data updated at 8am showed. The Ministry of Health said the 11 most COVID-19 affected countries in the world –the US, Brazil, Russia, Peru, Chile, Mexico, South Africa, the UK, Iran, Pakistan, Spain — together reported 8 times more cases and 14 times more deaths than India. There are 3,73,379 active cases presently in the country. The total number of confirmed cases includes foreigners. This is the fourth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 30,000.
The new coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 600,000 lives worldwide. A total of 600,523 deaths were recorded globally out of 14,233,355 cases, a count based on official data showed, including 205,065 deaths in Europe — the worst-affected continent. The virus is spreading rapidly in Latin America — the region with the second-most recorded deaths — where 160,726 people have died. The United States is the country with the most deaths with 140,103, followed by Brazil (78,772), Britain (45,273), Mexico (38,888) and Italy (35,042). The number of deaths linked to COVID-19 has doubled in just over two months, and more than 100,000 new deaths have been registered in the three weeks since June 28.
As the cases of coronavirus rise, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he will only impose another nationwide coronavirus lockdown as a last resort, comparing the tool to “a nuclear deterrent” in a Sunday newspaper interview. Johnson, who is hoping Britain can return to “normality” by Christmas despite fears of a second wave of cases over winter, insisted the country was getting better at tackling the virus. The UK has been among the worst-hit countries in the world by COVID-19, registering the highest death toll in Europe. Meanwhile, its economy has been battered by a months-long lockdown that has only been gradually eased over recent weeks — and which Johnson is desperate to repair by avoiding another national shutdown.
“I can’t abandon that tool any more than I would abandon a nuclear deterrent,” he told the Daily Telegraph in a wide-ranging interview to mark the end of his first year in Downing Street. “But it is like a nuclear deterrent, I certainly don’t want to use it. And nor do I think we will be in that position again.” Johnson insisted health authorities were “getting much better at spotting the disease and isolating it locally” while also learning more about who it affects most and how it is spread.
The British premier on Friday sketched out a timetable for easing the remaining lockdown measures in England, including lifting homeworking guidance and reopening sports stadiums and live theatre. Current government advice is for employees to work from home where they can, but under the new proposals employers will have “more discretion” to urge staff to return.
Despite Johnson’s optimism and desire for a return to normal, his chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said on Friday that social distancing needed to continue “for a long period of time”. The government’s chief scientific advisor, Patrick Vallance, agreed, judging the risk of a second wave of infection to be “high”.
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