Worldwide coronavirus deaths hit 900,000
The global death toll from the coronavirus passed 900,000 on Wednesday, as worldwide cases topped 27.7 million, according to a Reuters tally.
The United States remains the world’s worst-affected country, with deaths exceeding 190,000 and cases exceeding 6.3 million. Brazil is in second place with more than 127,000 deaths followed by India with nearly 74,000 dead.
India reported record jumps in new coronavirus infections and deaths on Thursday, taking its tally of cases past 4.4 million, health ministry figures showed.
In the last 24 hours, 95,735 new infections were detected, with 1,172 deaths accounting for the highest single-day mortality figures in more than a month, to push the toll beyond 75,000.
As the epicentre of the pandemic shifts to India, there is no sign of a peak in the world’s second most populous nation. As bars reopened on Wednesday for the first time since lockdown, it is adding more cases each day than any other country since the onset at the start of the year. It is recording more deaths than any other country – an average of more than 1,000 daily for the last two weeks.
The Americas still account for more than half of all fatalities worldwide owing to high death counts in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile and Ecuador.
An average of more than 5,600 people die each day from Covid-19, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the last two weeks. The rate of deaths is holding steady taking 18 days to climb from 800,000 to 900,000 deaths. It took 17 days to go from 700,000 to 800,000.
