United States has records 39,000 news cases within 24 hrs
- The United States has seen a major resurgence in coronavirus cases as Texas, Florida and California all reported record increases.
- Coronavirus hospitalisations and caseloads have reached new highs in more than half a dozen states in the US, with newly confirmed cases nationwide back near their peak level of two months ago.
- The number of cases worldwide is expected to reach 10 million next week, the World Health Organization has said, warning that the virus has yet to peak in the Americas.
- More than 9.4 million people around the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19, with over 4.7 million have recovered, and nearly 483,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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India says it will carry out a massive survey for the coronavirus targeting the entire population in New Delhi of 29 million.
Officials will go each household to record each resident’s health details, and administer a test for the virus to those who show or report symptoms.
The number of novel coronavirus cases in the six Gulf Arab states has doubled in a month to over 400,000, as the region’s two biggest economies this week fully lifted curfews imposed to combat the infection.
As of Wednesday evening, the tally in the energy producing region stood at 403,163 infections, with 2,346 deaths, according to a Reuters tally. It passed the 200,000 mark on May 27.
Russia confirmed 7,113 new cases of the novel coronavirus, pushing its tally to 613,994.
Officials said 92 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 8,605.
Zaker Hussain Zaheri was a cook in Afghanistan’s capital who lost his job in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, he digs trenches to capture rainwater and snowmelt on a mountain on the outskirts of Kabul, as the city grapples with both a water and health crisis.
Lockdown measures to curb the spread of the disease have taken their toll on Afghanistan’s economy, so the government is employing more than 40,000 jobless workers to rehabilitate groundwater supplies for its fast-growing capital.
The United States has seen a major surge in coronavirus cases, weeks after many areas reopened their economies.
Seven states, mainly in the south and west, and including Texas, California and Arizona, reported record increases on Wednesday with the nationwide tally rising by more than 38,600.
Texas, Florida and California all reported record increases, with 7,100, 5,550 and 5,510 new cases, respectively, over the preceding 24 hours.
Senegalese President Macky Sall is quarantining for two weeks after coming into contact with someone who has since tested positive for the coronavirus, state television said.
The measure is precautionary as an initial COVID-19 test of Sall has come back negative, it said.
Lufthansa shares jumped more than 27 percent in early trade after billionaire investor Heinz Hermann Thiele endorsed a 9 billion euro ($10.12 billion) government bailout to rescue the carrier hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
“I will vote for the proposal,” Thiele, who owns a 15.5 percent stake in Lufthansa, told Frankfurter Allgemeine daily on Wednesday.
His endorsement amounted to a respite for the airline after fears had swirled that he might veto the proposed package, which would see Germany buy 20 percent of the company.
Coronavirus testing numbers in Pakistan – one of the countries with the highest rate of spread of the infection currently – are continuing to drop, with just 21,835 tests conducted on Wednesday.
Of those, 4,044 patients tested positive, according to government data, a test-positive rate of 18.5 percent. Countrywide cases rose on Wednesday to 192,970 cases, according to the data. The country also recorded its second-highest number of deaths in a single day on Wednesday, with 148 patients dying, taking the overall death toll to 3,978, according to government data.
The drop in testing is driven by significant decreases in daily testing in Sindh and Punjab provinces respectively, the country’s two most populous regions. In Sindh, officials told Al Jazeera the drop in testing was due to a “shortage of staff” at labs causing a backlog.
A 55-year-old male coronavirus patient (confirmed case No 1180) admitted to hospital in Hong Kong in late May has died early on Thursday morning, a spokesman for the Princess Margaret Hospital said
The hospital said the man had suffered a stroke in the Philippines and was airlifted back to Hong Kong.
Seven people have now died from COVID-19 in the territory.
A group of MPs from Southeast Asia are calling on leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to do more to help refugees and migrants, particularly Rohingya, taking boats across the Indian Ocean.
The open letter signed by Charles Santiago, chairman of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), urged ASEAN leaders to respect vulnerable communities and curb hateful rhetoric directed at refugees and migrants during the coronavirus epidemic.
Malaysia detained 269 Rohingya on a damaged boat earlier this month, and media reported this week that a boat carrying 300 people had been turned away. APHR said ASEAN countries needed to work with Myanmar to end the Rohingya crisis and “organise urgent collective search and rescue operations for boats carrying Rohingya refugees and to organise for their proper disembarkation.
