India’s virus toll sees record jump

India's official coronavirus death toll leapt by more than 2,000 yesterday as China closed schools in Beijing and restricted air travel from the capital to prevent a second wave of infections.

Germany urged its nationals in India to consider leaving for their own safety, while France warned its citizens in New Delhi to stay home unless going to an airport to return to Europe.

Authorities said the sharp increase in fatalities to 11,903 was mainly due to Mumbai and Delhi updating their figures.

Death tolls in both cities have been increasing in recent days. Mumbai blamed unspecified accounting "discrepancies" for the increase of 862 to 3,165 deaths. Delhi added more than 430 fatalities, taking its total to over 1,800.

Officials said 93 of the Delhi deaths and 55 in Mumbai had been in the previous 24 hours.

The surging infections in South Asia and Latin America and new Chinese cluster have raised fresh doubts about how soon the world can control the pandemic, which has seen more than 8.1 million cases and nearly 444,000 deaths.

While hopes were boosted by a "breakthrough" treatment that could reduce deaths among Covid-19 patients, the lack of a vaccine means nations have to rely on some form of lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus.

After 31 more cases were reported in Beijing, Chinese authorities yesterday cancelled more than 1,200 flights from the capital's main airports, state media reported, adding to restrictions placed earlier on close to 30 residential compounds.

"The situation is serious and people don't want to come out," said Bai Xue, a staff member at a Beijing restaurant which put up a notice online saying it has not sourced food from Xinfadi -- the sprawling wholesale market linked to the new outbreak.

With nearly 140 cases now reported from Beijing, authorities in the city shut schools once again and urged residents not to leave as thousands were tested for the coronavirus.

While the fears in China are about a full-blown second wave of infections after largely bringing its outbreak under control, other nations such as India are just beginning to feel the full force of the pandemic.

The South Asian nation of 1.3 billion people now has the fourth-highest Covid-19 caseload in the world.

The epidemic has badly hit India's densely populated major cities and Chennai in the south has ordered a new lockdown from Friday because of a surge in cases.

Hospitals in Mumbai have been overwhelmed, while the government has sent specially-adapted railway carriages to Delhi and authorities have taken over hotels and banquet halls to accommodate coronavirus patients.

There have been surges too in Iran and Saudi Arabia, while eyes remain on Latin America, the new epicentre.

Brazil, the worst-hit nation after the United States, reported its highest daily jump in cases, while Peru's death toll surged past 7,000, reports AFP.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the military will now oversee the nation's borders and quarantine after a blunder resulted in two new cases.

'LIFESAVING BREAKTHROUGH'

Without a vaccine or effective treatment, lockdowns in some form remain the main weapon against coronavirus for governments facing rising political and economic pressure.

There was some good news on that front -- a study in Britain found that a treatment using a widely available steroid drug called dexamethasone could reduce deaths among coronavirus patients.

World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated scientists for the "lifesaving scientific breakthrough".

Researchers led by a team from the University of Oxford administered the drug to more than 2,000 severely ill Covid-19 patients.

Among those who could only breathe with the help of a ventilator, it reduced deaths by 35 percent.

"Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide," said Oxford professor Peter Horby.

WHO said it was moving to update its guidelines on treating people to reflect results of the clinical trial of dexamethasone, reports Reuters.

German biotech firm CureVac has won permission to start human trials of a promising coronavirus vaccine, regulators announced.

The Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), the German body responsible for assessing clinical trials and approving vaccines, called the approval "an important milestone".

EU BORDER RESTRICTIONS

European nations including Belgium, France, Germany and Greece have begun lifting border restrictions, hoping to save the summer tourism season.

But life is far from normal despite dropping case numbers in such countries.

The English Premier League, which has a massive following among football fans worldwide, resumed yesterday after a long suspension because of the pandemic.

Organisers have urged supporters not to congregate outside venues, as that could lead to fresh outbreaks.

Sweden, which has gained international attention for its softer approach to curbing the spread of the new coronavirus, said yesterday its death toll had passed the 5,000 mark.

Norway said its salmon was not the source of the recently discovered outbreak of the new coronavirus in Beijing, after many Chinese restaurants and retailers stopped selling imports of the fish.

Norwegian salmon came under scrutiny in China after a recently discovered cluster of new coronavirus cases was reportedly traced to the Xinfadi meat market in Beijing.

Taiwan yesterday said it planned to relax controls on some foreign business visitors coming to the island from countries that have made headway against the coronavirus pandemic including New Zealand, Australia and Thailand.