Global coronavirus death toll passes one million, India has 6m cases
The global death toll from the coronavirus has passed a million.
The global death toll from the novel coronavirus, which emerged less than a year ago in China and has swept across the world, passed a million on Monday.
And India reported its six millionth coronavirus case as it surged closer to the US as the most-infected nation.
Indian Health Ministry data showed a rise of 82,000 cases on Monday, taking the total to 6.1 million and closing the gap on the US, which has recorded 7.1 million infections. India could leapfrog the US in the coming weeks.
India has a much lower death rate than other worst-hit nations with almost 100,000 fatalities so far — fewer than half the toll of 205,000 recorded in the US, which has roughly a quarter of India’s 1.3 billion people. Brazil has recorded 140,000 deaths, followed by Mexico and Britain.
At 9.30am on Monday AEST the disease had claimed 1,000,009 victims from 33,018,877 recorded infections.
Europe, hit hard by the first wave, is now facing another surge in cases, with Paris, London and Madrid all forced to introduce controls to slow cases threatening to overload hospitals. Masks and social distancing in shops, cafes and public transport are now part of everyday life in many cities.
Protesters hit the streets of Madrid against virus restrictions on Sunday, a day before a partial lockdown is extended to more areas of Spain’s capital region trying to curb a surge in coronavirus cases. The city with its surrounding region is at the epicentre of a second wave of infections sweeping Spain. COVID-19 has already claimed more than 31,000 lives among more than 700,000 cases nationwide, the highest infection rate in the EU.
With scientists still racing to find a working vaccine, governments are again forced into an uneasy balancing act: Virus controls slow the spread of the disease, but they hurt already reeling economies and businesses.
By the middle of this month there had been a record rise in cases in most regions and the World Health Organisation has warned virus deaths could even double to two million without more global collective action.
“One million is a terrible number and we need to reflect on that before we start considering a second million,” the World Health Organisation’s emergencies director Michael Ryan said on Friday.
“Are we prepared collectively to do what it takes to avoid that number?”
The virus made its first known appearance in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, ground zero of the outbreak. How it got there is still unclear but scientists think it originated in bats and could have been transmitted to people via another mammal. Wuhan was shut down in January as other countries looked on in disbelief at China’s draconian controls, even as they went about their business as usual.
By March 11, the virus had emerged in over 100 countries and the WHO declared a pandemic, expressing concern about the “alarming levels of inaction.”
The Tokyo Olympics, Rio’s Carnival and the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca are among the events postponed or disrupted. Premier League football has restarted but with empty stadiums. The French Open tennis tournament is limiting its audiences to 1000 a day. Israel has gone into full lockdown again and Moscow’s vulnerable have been ordered to stay home.
AFP
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