The World Health Organization on Tuesday said that India led the rise in global coronavirus cases last week, reporting nearly 5 lakh of the 18 lakh new worldwide infections, Reuters reported. The global health body added that India’s cases pushed the global tally up by 1%.
“South-East Asia has reported the largest week-on-week increase, largely due to increased case detections in India,” the WHO said in an update, according to the news agency. “India has reported nearly 5,00,000 new cases in the past seven days, a 9% increase compared to the previous seven days and the highest numbers of new cases globally.”
WHO added that the global coronavirus deaths in the last seven days reduced by 3% as compared to the week before.
The organisation added that Spain, Russia, Ukraine and France reported the maximum number of new cases in Europe last week. WHO also flagged upward trends in Latin America and Africa.
On Monday, the global health body had warned that opening up “societies” without a control over the coronavirus cases would be a “recipe for disaster”.
India’s coronavirus case count reached 36,91,166 on Tuesday after it reported 69,921 new cases in 24 hours. The infection has killed 65,288 people in the country. India has now overtaken Mexico’s toll (64,414). But despite the rise in cases, the government had last week relaxed more coronavirus restrictions under “Unlock 4”.
On Sunday, India reported its biggest one-day rise of 78,761 cases. According to some reports, it was the maximum daily count reported by any country since the beginning of the pandemic.
Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 2.54 crore people and killed over 8.49 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s tracker. Over 1.67 crore people across the world have recovered from the infection.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!