2024 RT Amination Banner.gif

China Daily

News> World> Content
Saturday, August 08, 2020, 16:17
WHO: COVID-19 cases in Americas surpass 10 million
By Agencies
Saturday, August 08, 2020, 16:17 By Agencies

In this file photo taken on Aug 04, 2020, a woman walks past a store displaying a sign before closing down permanently following the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, in Arlington, Virginia. (OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP)

WASHINGTON / BEDMINSTER / MONTERREY / LONDON / VALLETTA / DUBLIN / JOHANNESBURG / CARACAS / NEW YORK / PARIS / ROME / BRUSSELS / BERLIN / MOSCOW / GENEVA - The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Americas has crossed the 10 million mark, accounting for over half of the global tally, according to data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday.

As of 10 am CET on Friday, 154,118 new COVID-19 cases had been reported in the Americas during the past 24 hours, taking the total tally to 10,135,322, which took up more than 50 percent of the global tally -- 18,902,735. Meanwhile, 4,598 deaths from the COVID-19 infection had been recorded in the region, bringing the total fatalities to 376,606, the data showed.

With the daily increase of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Americas exceeding 100,000 ever since July 9, the region has been regarded by the WHO as a new epicenter of the pandemic.

ALSO READ: Africa's COVID-19 cases exceed 1 million

Africa

Africa’s confirmed cases of COVID-19 have surpassed 1 million, a Reuters tally showed on Thursday, as the disease began to spread rapidly through a continent whose relative isolation has so far spared it the worst of the pandemic.

The continent recorded 1,003,056 cases, of which 21,983 have died and 676,395 recovered. South Africa - which is the world's fifth worst-hit nation and makes up more than half of sub-Saharan Africa's case load - has recorded 538,184 cases since its first case on March 5, the health ministry said on Thursday.

Low levels of testing in many countries mean Africa’s infection rates are likely to be higher than reported, experts said.

Already creaking public health services are overwhelmed and there are shortages of beds, protective gear and nurses. COVID-19 patients have sometimes had to be treated alongside others.

Brazil

Brazil has registered nearly 100,000 deaths from the novel coronavirus disease, the Ministry of Health reported on Friday.

The ministry said that over the last 24 hours, 1,079 deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 99,572, and 50,230 new COVID-19 cases were registered, raising the total number of cases to 2,962,442.

EU

The European Union removed Morocco from its safe list of countries from which the bloc allows non-essential travel, after a review by EU ambassadors on Friday.

The move leaves 10 countries on the new list, which takes effect August 8, after the EU also excluded Algeria last week.

The safe countries deemed to have the coronavirus pandemic largely under control are Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, and Uruguay.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia's confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 21,452 after 552 new COVID-19 positive cases were confirmed on Friday, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health said.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Health in a statement issued on Friday revealed that from a total of 9,203 medical tests that were conducted within the last 24 hours, 552 of them tested positive for COVID-19, eventually bringing the total number of positive cases to 21,452.

The ministry also disclosed that 15 patients succumbed to illnesses related to the COVID-19 pandemic on Friday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the East African country to 380.

A woman walks along Marseille's Old Port, southern France, Aug 7, 2020. (DANIEL COLE / AP)

France

The number of people in France infected with coronavirus on Friday rose by 2,288 on Friday, a new post-lockdown high, following increases of 1,604 on Thursday and 1,695 on Wednesday, the health ministry said in a statement.

It also said that the cumulative death toll from the virus now stood at 30,324, an increase of 12 compared to 7 on Thursday and 9 on Wednesday.

The number of people in hospital continued its weeks-long slide, falling by 49 to 5,011, while the number of people in intensive care fell again by 7 to 383 after it rose on three days this week.

The number of people in ICU had been falling steadily every day from a high of 7,148 on April 8, but that trend reversed this week and the number of people in ICU is now higher than seven days ago.

Germany

Germany will give a welcome break to the coronavirus lovelorn from Monday - easing its border controls to allow unmarried couples to reunite after what has been months of separation for some.

The exemption will apply to the partners of Germans from countries that Germany considers high-risk - currently most of the world outside the EU - and couples will have to provide some proof that they were in a relationship before the pandemic, the interior ministry said on Friday.

Most European Union borders have been closed to non-EU travellers since March, unless they are essential workers or married to an EU resident.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 1,122 to 215,336, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday.

The reported death toll rose by twelve to 9,195, the tally showed.

Italy

Italy approved on Friday a new stimulus package aimed at helping businesses and families survive the coronavirus crisis, while Rome waits to receive funds from the European Union’s Recovery Fund.

The government would use the extra spending, worth 25 billion euros (US$29.5 billion), to soften the blow to an economy ravaged by lockdown measures imposed to stem the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed almost 35,200 people.

Ireland

Ireland expects to see a significant number of COVID-19 cases in the next few days after reporting its highest number of daily cases in 11 weeks on Friday, the country’s acting chief medical officer said.

Ireland announced its first localised reimposition of some coronavirus restrictions on Friday as it sought to control outbreaks in three of the country’s 26 counties, one of which borders the most populous, Dublin.

Restaurants, cafes and pubs in Kildare, Laois and Offaly can only serve food in outdoor areas to small groups for the next two weeks, with residents only allowed to leave their county in limited circumstances. The adjoining counties accounted for almost half of all cases in Ireland over the last two weeks.

Ireland, which for several weeks had one of the lowest infection rates in Europe, has seen a spike over the last week with the average infection rate more than doubling to around 50 cases per day.

The 92 cases reported on Friday was the highest since May 22, when the country was beginning to emerge from lockdown.

Kenya

Kenya's Ministry of Health said the total number of COVID-19 cases passed the 25,000 mark on Friday amid a steady spike in the number of infections across the country.

Mutahi Kagwe, cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Health, said 727 more patients tested positive for the virus from 6,814 samples in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 25,138.

Kagwe noted that out of the new cases, 711 are Kenyan nationals while 16 are foreign nationals who are living in the country.

Men carry flowers as family members arrive to decorate the grave of a man who died of suspected COVID-19, in a section of the Municipal Cemetery of Valle de Chalco opened three months ago to accommodate the surge in deaths amid the ongoing new coronavirus pandemic, on the outskirts of Mexico City, Aug 7, 2020. (REBECCA BLACKWELL / AP)

Mexico

Mexico’s energy secretary, Rocio Nahle, said on Friday she was quarantining for two weeks because she had been in contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19.

Nahle said on Twitter that she tested negative for the illness caused by the novel coronavirus but that she was abiding by the medical recommendations.

Mexico reported 6,717 new COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours, taking the national count to 469,407 cases, the country's health ministry said on Friday.

Meanwhile, 794 additional deaths were reported, taking the death toll to 51,311.

Malta

Malta banned mass gatherings and made it mandatory to wear masks in public on Friday as new coronavirus cases surged after having been reduced to zero for a week early in July.

Health authorities reported 49 new infections on Friday, the second highest daily number since the first case was detected on March 7. Nine patients have died.

Ireland, Latvia and Lithuania have banned travel from Malta or imposed a quarantine period for visitors from the islands. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending against non-essential travel to Malta.

Morocco

Morocco on Friday reported 1,018 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of coronavirus infections in the country to 30,666.

The total number of recoveries from the coronavirus in Morocco increased to 21,548, after 995 new ones were added, while the death toll rose by 12 to 461, said Mouad Mrabet, coordinator of the Moroccan Center for Public Health Operations at the Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, more than 19,700 contacts with the coronavirus patients are still under medical surveillance, while 127 patients are in intensive care units.

Poland

Poland reported 843 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, according to the health ministry’s Twitter account, the seventh daily record in two weeks.

Poland has reported 51,167 cases of the new coronavirus in all, and 1,800 deaths.

Russia

Russian authorities reported 5,212 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday, pushing its national tally to 882,347, the fourth largest in the world.

The official death toll rose to 14,854 after officials said 129 people had died across the country in the last 24 hours.

Romania

Romania on Friday reported 1,378 new coronavirus cases and 50 new related deaths in the last 24 hours, both the biggest daily spike since the start of the pandemic.

Friday's figures showed that Romania has registered so far a total of 59,273 COVID-19 cases and 2,616 deaths, while 29,289 people have recovered.

President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Bedminster, N.J., Aug 7, 2020. (SUSAN WALSH / AP)

US

US President Donald Trump vowed to unilaterally suspend payroll taxes and extend expired coronavirus unemployment benefits after negotiations with congressional Democrats on a broad pandemic aid package collapsed on Friday.

Trump told a news conference at his golf club in New Jersey that he will sign an executive order implementing these measures, suspending student loan repayments and rental housing evictions in coming days if no deal is reached.

He said the payroll tax suspension — a move he has long called for but shunned by both parties in Congress — would be retroactive to July 1 and extend through the end of 2020, with a possible extension into next year if he is re-elected.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday said that all school districts in his state, once the epicenter of the nation’s COVID-19 crisis, could open for in-person learning in the fall based on their current low infection rates of the virus.

All New York regions have met the reopening threshold that Cuomo set in July, the governor said on Friday, with infection rates of the disease below 5 percent over on a 14-day average.

The rate of COVID-19 tests that came back positive on Thursday was 1 percent statewide, Cuomo said.

Nearly 600 children were admitted to US hospitals with a rare inflammatory syndrome associated with the novel coronavirus over four months during the peak of the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report on Friday.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) is a rare but severe condition that shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, including fever, rashes, swollen glands and, in severe cases, heart inflammation.

It has been reported in children and adolescent patients about two to four weeks after the onset of COVID-19.

READ MORE: UK mulls local travel curbs to cut infections

UK

Britain’s government on Friday ordered a ban on gatherings of households in the northern English town of Preston in its latest localised clampdown to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Venezuela

Security forces are punishing some Venezuelans who violate anti-coronavirus measures with physical exercise, sitting under the sun and even beating, witnesses and rights groups say.

Maduro’s government is trying to stop an accelerating number of cases from overloading the dilapidated health system. So far authorities have confirmed 23,280 cases and 202 deaths, though medical bodies warn that testing is insufficient and numbers may be far higher as the COVID-19 disease rages across Latin America.

Ethiopia


Share this story

CHINA DAILY
HONG KONG NEWS
OPEN
Please click in the upper right corner to open it in your browser !