Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world has surpassed 16 million, Johns Hopkins University Center, an American research institution, reported. Of these, more than 9.2 million people had recovered, and over 644,000 died, it said.
Since its emergence in December last year, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, COVID-19, has afflicted 16,055,909 people and killed 644,661 others across the world, according to the university. The United States is the worst hit country, with 4,178,730 cases and 146,463 deaths. The countries trailing the US in terms of infections are Brazil, India, and Russia.
The spread of the viral disease continues to accelerate, and more than five million cases have been declared across the globe since the beginning of the month. Some countries are easing their COVID-19 lockdown restrictions due to economic concerns, while others are reintroducing strict measures to rein in the deadly outbreak. Government officials have called on people in the country of five million to observe social distancing and wear masks.
Meanwhile, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday that he will reconvene the Emergency Committee on Thursday to re-evaluate the COVID-19 pandemic, as global COVID-19 cases had doubled over the past six weeks. Saying that this Thursday (July 30) marks six months since Jan. 30 when WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, Tedros told a virtual press conference that almost 16 million cases have now been reported to WHO, with more than 640,000 deaths worldwide.
“This is the sixth time a global health emergency has been declared under the International Health Regulations, but it is easily the most severe,” he said, adding that the pandemic continues to accelerate. In the past six weeks, the global total number of cases has roughly doubled, Tedros said. He said that although the world has changed, the basic measures needed to suppress transmission and save lives have not find, isolate, test and care for cases, and trace and quarantine their contacts.
“Countries and communities that have followed this advice carefully and consistently have done well, either in preventing large-scale outbreaks — like Cambodia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Thailand, Vietnam, and islands in the Pacific and Caribbean or in bringing large outbreaks under control, like Canada, China, Germany and the Republic of Korea,” he said.
While, the country reported 1,176 new novel coronavirus cases during past 24 hours, taking the nationwide number of cases to 274,286.
According to the latest figures released by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 20 deaths were also reported due to virus in the last 24 hours. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 5,842.
The number of active cases of the COVID-19 in the country now stands at 27,421. Pakistan has so far conducted 1,890,236 coronavirus tests and 22,056 in the last 24 hours. Sindh remains the worst-hit province by the pandemic in terms of cases followed by Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad.
Till now 118,311 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 92,073 in Punjab, 33,397 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11,601 in Balochistan, 14,884 in Islamabad 1,989 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 2,034 in Azad Kashmir.
Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, recorded 459 cases of the new coronavirus, the second-highest daily total and up from 357 cases the previous day, the state’s leader said on Sunday. The state’s second wave is being driven by workplace infections, including at aged-care and healthcare facilities, big distribution centres, slaughterhouses, cold-storage facilities and warehouses, Andrews said.
