Foreign Desk Report
New York: Global coronavirus cases surged past 25 million on Sunday, according to tally, as India marked a worldwide record for daily new cases in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The data showed steady global growth as the disease’s epicentre shifts again, with India taking centre stage from the United States and Latin America. India’s single-day tally of 78,761 new coronavirus infections on Sunday exceeded the one-day increase of 77,299 reported by the United States in mid-July. The south Asian country’s surge took the global caseload to 25,074,751. The official number of global coronavirus cases is now at least five times the number of severe influenza illnesses recorded annually, according to World Health Organization data.
Around the world, there have been more than 840,000 deaths, considered a lagging indicator given the two-week incubation period of the virus. That has exceeded the upper range of 290,000 to 650,000 annual deaths linked to influenza. India, the world’s second-most populous country, is third behind, the United States and Brazil, in total caseload, but has consistently outpaced both in new daily cases since Aug. 7.
