As the number of Covid-19 infections globally racing towards the40 million mark, Global coronavirus cases rose by more than 400,000 for the first time late on Friday.
In Europe, countries including Germany, Italy, Portugal reported record cases as the pandemic’s accelerating resurgence forced fresh lockdowns. The UK saw its credit rating cut by Moody’s. The pandemic has blown a hole in the public finances, with the credit assessor lowering the grade by a notch to Aa3, its fourth-highest ranking.
Global coronavirus cases rose by more than 400,000 for the first time, a record one-day increase https://t.co/IXJ1UdfwoI pic.twitter.com/N0CAWTaoNQ
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 18, 2020
Eight French senators have tested positive for Covid-19, the French Senate’s press office said on Friday. One of the senators has been hospitalized, France Info reported earlier.
UN chief Antonio Guterres rued on Saturday that a divided world has “failed” to rise to the challenge of fighting the pandemic, and called for concerted action to prevent millions of people being pushed into poverty.
India crosses a Significant Milestone
India has leaped across a significant milestone in its fight against Covid-19. The active caseload of the country has fallen below 8 lakh for the first time after one and a half months.
While India’s Covid-19 case tally near the 75 lakh mark with 61,871 new cases and 1,033 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.
India saw its tally of coronavirus cases surpass 7.4 million on Saturday. The health ministry said on Saturday that with a high number of Covid patients recovering every day, India’s steady trend of registering dipping active cases continues.
“India is the only country with the highest recoveries and continues to have one of the lowest fatality rates globally. Today it stands at 1.52%. These have in tandem resulted in the consistent slide in the active cases,” it said in a press release.
#COVID19India updates
✅Active caseload below 8 lakh for the first time after 1.5 months
✅70,816 single day recoveries registered in last 24 hours as against 62,212 new confirmed cases
✅ Recovery rate stands at 87.78%#Unite2FightCorona
Read more: https://t.co/5ADRf7gEH2 pic.twitter.com/er0nCnekI7
— PIB India (@PIB_India) October 17, 2020
“The Centre continues to support the State and UT Governments in the collective fight against the global pandemic. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has deputed high-level Central teams to Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal. These States have been reporting a surge in the number of new COVID cases in recent days,” the ministry said.
India is also reporting a high number of recoveries. The total recovered cases have crossed 65 lakhs (65,24,595). The difference between active cases and recovered cases is consistently increasing and stands at 57,29,508 on Saturday.