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"This time is different": Covid cases rocket, a million new cases in three days

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Mon, 12 Oct 2020, 6:05PM
One million new Covid-19 cases have been recorded over the last three days. (Photo / File)
One million new Covid-19 cases have been recorded over the last three days. (Photo / File)

"This time is different": Covid cases rocket, a million new cases in three days

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Mon, 12 Oct 2020, 6:05PM

The global pandemic is far from over, with a whopping one million cases recorded in just three days.

France, Russia, Nepal and a handful of states in the US are behind the massive spike in cases.

While the US is still the worst-hit country for coronavirus infections, with more than 7.7 million cases confirmed so far, India is looking to be on track to overtake it.

India's number of total confirmed cases surged above seven million on Sunday as the country, the world's second most populous, recorded 74,383 new cases.

The US has recorded more than 7.7 million cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, which has been tracking coronavirus numbers since the pandemic emerged in December.

At least 37,297,350 cases of coronavirus have been officially registered worldwide. Of those, about 25,763,900 are considered recovered.

The death toll has topped one million, and now sits at 1,074,732.

The US is the world's worst-hit country, losing close to 215,000 people to coronavirus. Brazil has reported 150,198 deaths from 5,082,637 cases, India has lost 108,334 people from its 7,053,806 cases and Mexico 83,642 deaths from 814,328 cases.

The UK and Italy, the European countries hardest hit by the pandemic, have lost 42,915 and 36,166 people respectively.

The surge in cases around the world has triggered a second wave of lockdowns.

In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will today present new restrictions to parliament, expected to be a new three-tier lockdown system as virus infections surge, particularly in northern England.

Johnson's chief strategic adviser Edward Lister wrote to MPs representing seats in northern England, after a meeting with regional leaders to warn them it is "very likely" the region will have to submit to tougher rules.

Britain's deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam told reporters the nation was at a "tipping point".

"This time is different ... as we are now going into the colder, darker winter months," he said.

In France, six cities, including Paris, were on maximum alert and under lockdown after a surge in cases.

The central European nation recorded 26,896 new infections on Saturday, a record daily high for France.

According to The New York Times, France has recorded a 32 per cent increase in its daily case average in the past two weeks.

The week before it broke its daily case record, France was recording 16,000 new cases a day.

The nation's frontline healthcare workers are also on the verge of burning out after struggling with the pandemic for more than eight months.

According to a survey from the national French nursing union, 57 per cent of the country's nurses said they were in a "state of professional exhaustion", up from 33 per cent before the global Covid-19 pandemic struck France in early 2020.

More than a third of nurses also said their departments were understaffed compared to normal, and two-thirds said working conditions had deteriorated since the start of the pandemic.

One in five nurses said they had been unable to take a holiday since March.

"While there are 34,000 vacant nurses' positions at this time in 2020 … the degraded working conditions mean we risk seeing even more nurses throwing in the towel," the union said in a statement.

Nepal is also reporting a surge in coronavirus cases.

With a population of 30 million, a tiny number compared to its neighbours of China and India, the nation reported a record 5008 infections on Saturday.

The country has recorded more than 100,000 cases since the pandemic began, a third of which are still active.

The caseload has already crippled Nepal's health system and coronavirus patients are being urged to stay in home isolation and not go to hospital.

About 400 patients are in intensive care and hospitals are at capacity.

Russia also broke its coronavirus record at the weekend, reporting an increase of 13,634 cases on Sunday and 149 deaths.

The day before, Russia recorded 12,864 cases.

Russia's record for daily coronavirus cases had previously been broken on October 9, when 12,126 people tested positive.

From Monday, workplaces across Moscow will be required to transfer 30 per cent of their employees to remote working until at least October 28.

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