Covid-19 cases surge globally

India recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases yesterday for the first time since November as a new wave of infections forcing lockdowns and restrictive curbs around the world.

The European Union will look for ways to end its vaccine struggles at a summit yesterday, as a Covid-19 surge takes the death toll in Brazil past 300,000.

India, a nation of 1.3 billion people, was this month overtaken by Brazil as the second-most infected country after cases dipped in December and January from a peak of nearly 100,000 per day in September.

But recent weeks have seen an uptick, with health ministry data yesterday showing almost 54,000 new infections over the previous 24 hours.

India's strict lockdown has been steadily eased over the past year and in recent months most activity, including weddings, religious festivals and some cricket matches, returned to normal.

Now many regions are reimposing curbs, particularly in the hard-hit western state of Maharashtra where officials have launched random virus checks in crowded areas in the local capital Mumbai.

The country's known coronavirus cases are approaching 12 million, with more than 160,000 deaths.

India meanwhile has administered more than 53 million vaccine shots. This week, it decided to allow all over-45s to be inoculated as it attempts to vaccinate 300 million people by August.

Meanwhile, EU leaders were scheduled to meet via videoconference to discuss AstraZeneca supplies, as well as new vaccine export rules that will weigh how needy countries are in terms of infection rates, how many jabs they have, and how readily they export doses to the bloc.

The talks come as Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands tighten restrictions to control surges in cases.

The virus has claimed more than 2.7 million lives around the world, hammered the global economy and left much of humanity under punishing restrictions.

Where the EU vaccine rollout has stuttered, there has been huge progress in the United States -- the world's worst-hit nation. Around 70 percent of Americans aged 65 or over -- more than 38 million people -- have received at least one dose, and hospital admissions for Covid-19 in that group are down 85 percent since early January.