Covid Pandemic: WHO reports record one-day rise in cases

The World Health Organization reported a record one-day increase in global coronavirus cases on Thursday, with the total rising by 338,779 in 24 hours led by a surge of infections in Europe.

Europe reported 96,996 new cases, the highest total for the region ever recorded by the WHO. Global deaths rose by 5,514 to a total of 1.05 million.

The previous WHO record for new cases was 330,340 on October 2. The agency reported a record 12,393 deaths on April 17.

As a region, Europe is now reporting more cases than India, Brazil or the United States.

India reported 78,524 new cases on Thursday, followed by Brazil at 41,906 and the United States with 38,904 new infections, according to the WHO, whose data lags the daily reports by each country.

Across the world 1,063,346 people have died of the coronavirus since it first emerged in China late last year. More than 36.5 million cases have been officially diagnosed.

According to a Reuters analysis of more recent country data, infections are rising in 54 countries, including surges in Argentina, Canada and much of Europe.

Infections in the United Kingdom have reached record levels with over 17,000 new cases reported on Thursday.

"We are seeing a definite and sustained increase in cases and admissions to hospital. The trend is clear, and it is very concerning," said Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director for Public Health England.

France's new daily Covid-19 infections remained above the record 18,000 threshold for the second day on Thursday with new measures to curb the outbreak expected.

The average number of new infections reported in Belgium has been increasing for seven days straight and Germany reported its biggest daily increase in new cases since April on Thursday.

Spain's federal government declared a state of alarm in and around Madrid to enforce a partial lockdown, overriding both strong opposition from the regional authorities and a ruling by judges had cancelled the restrictions.

Russia registered a record daily number of new infections, surpassing its previous high from May. The 12,126 new infections bring the total number of confirmed cases to 1,272,238 -- the fourth highest in the world.

While India still leads in the globe in most new cases reported per day, new infections are down 20% from its peak.

India's total cases rose by 70,496 in the last 24 hours to 6.91 million yesterday morning, data from the health ministry showed. Deaths from Covid-19 infections rose by 964 to 106,490, the ministry said.

In the United States, which has the largest total number of cases and deaths in the world, new infections are edging higher along with the most hospitalized Covid-19 patients since early September.

The US has passed another Covid-19 milestone, with more than 7.6m cases registered on the Johns Hopkins University tracker.

Ukraine will open more hospitals to accept patients with the novel coronavirus infection amid a recent spike in new cases, the government said yesterday.

Ukraine registered a record 5,804 cases in the past 24 hours, the national security council said yesterday, up from a previous record of 5,397 new cases reported on Thursday.

However, Australia reported its second straight day without any deaths yesterday.

2.7M MIGRANTS STRANDED

More than 2.7 million migrants who wished to return home have been stranded abroad because of restrictions put in place to fight the pandemic, the United Nations said yesterday.

The world needs to urgently step up cooperation to allow people to return in a safe manner despite the coronavirus constraints, said the UN's International Organization for Migration.

The IOM warned in a report that border closures and travel bans had left large numbers of migrants stranded, reports AFP.

It defined stranded migrants as people outside their country of habitual residence who wanted to return home but were being prevented by restrictions related to the pandemic.

IOM chief Antonio Vitorino urged countries to do more for the roughly 2.75 million people stuck in limbo.

"The scope and subsequent enforcement of tens of thousands of mobility restrictions, including border closures and nationwide lockdowns related to Covid-19, requires states to reach out to their neighbours and to migrants' countries of origin to address their needs and vulnerabilities," he said in a statement.