Clicky
World, Back Page

Covid-19: Global cases top 61.5m


Bangladeshpost
Published : 28 Nov 2020 10:30 PM | Updated : 29 Nov 2020 03:13 PM

As the whole world is grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 61,585,651on Saturday, according to the data compiled by John Hopkins University (JHU), report agencies.

Besides, 1,441, 875 people have died so far from the virus infection, the data showed.

Coronavirus is affecting 191 countries and territories around the world since the first cases were reported in China in December last year. The US has reported 13,086,367 cases since the start of the pandemic while the death toll from the virus jumped to 264,842 as of Saturday.

Los Angeles County announced a new stay-home order Friday as coronavirus cases surged out of control in the nation’s most populous county, banning most gatherings but stopping short of a full shutdown on retail stores and other non-essential businesses, reports AP.

The three-week “safer at home” order takes effect Monday. It came as the county of 10 million residents confirmed 24 new deaths and 4,544 new confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The county had set a threshold for issuing the stay-home order an average of 4,500 cases a day over a five-day period, but hadn’t expected to reach that level until next month.

By far, the United States remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's most cases and deaths, making up more than 21 percent of the global caseload.

U.S. COVID-19 cases hit 10 million on Nov. 9, and have since then increased at a pace of 1 million more cases about six days on average.

Thursday marked the 25th consecutive day that the U.S. daily cases reported more than 100,000 since the beginning of November.

Brazil on Friday reported 514 more deaths from COVID-19, raising its total death toll to 171,974.

According to the Ministry of Health, tests detected 34,130 new cases, pushing the accumulated caseload to 6,238,350.

Brazil has the world's second-highest COVID-19 death toll, after the United States, and the third largest caseload, next to the United States and India.

India is the third-worst affected country with 135,715 deaths and 9,309,787 confirmed cases.

Countries with decreasing COVID-19 numbers still need to stay vigilant, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said Friday.

Even as case numbers are coming down, all countries need to remain vigilant. You've heard of this before, but we really need to emphasize it again. Do not let your guard down, Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said during a virtual briefing, reports Xinhua.

It's good to see the measures taking effect and transmission going down. But it's not time to let up. It's time to even scale up, Van Kerkhove added.