New Delhi: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday evening reported 1,842,101 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 14,676 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 827 to 107,029. According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the latest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US stood at 1,861,966 with 107,685 deaths.
The total confirmed cases globally stood at 6,573,286 with 387,898 fatalities, reflected the JHU website's midnight data.
Amid ongoing protests against the alleged killing of George Floyd, a top US health official today said that protesters particularly in cities that have struggled to control the novel coronavirus should "highly consider" getting tested for COVID-19.
"Those individuals that have partaken in these peaceful protests or have been out protesting, and particularly if they`re in metropolitan areas that really haven`t controlled the outbreak...we really want those individuals to highly consider being evaluated and get tested," Robert Redfield, director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a US House of Representatives committee.
Meanwhile, Spain`s overall death toll from the coronavirus edged higher on Thursday, though discrepancies between regional and national data raised questions over the methodology used by the government to produce the tally.
The ministry has stopped providing a daily death toll but reported a total of 27,133 deaths, five more than on Wednesday. Confirmed cases climbed by 195 from the previous day to 240,660. Spain is implementing a new methodology for logging deaths and cases, leading to fluctuations in its statistics and frequent revisions of data, which officials say are likely to continue for some time.
Between Sunday and Tuesday, the ministry`s official death toll remained unchanged at 27,128 even though several regions reported new deaths.
The World Health Organization, however, put Spain`s death toll at 27,940 on Thursday, more than 800 higher than the government`s figure.
In England, face coverings will be compulsory for passengers on buses, trains, aircraft and ferries from June 15, as public transport use reportedly rises following the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions.
Britain`s government has been reluctant to mandate the widespread use of face masks or coverings so far, but Shapps said the benefits were clearer on public transport, where social distancing is harder.
In India, the nationwide tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases on Thursday reached 2.17 lakh with a record number of over 9,000 new cases getting detected and several states reporting their highest one-day surge, even as efforts were accelerated to restart long-stalled business activities to contain the economic cost of the pandemic.
The Union Health Ministry released standard operating procedures for reopening offices, hotels, shopping malls, restaurants and religious places. Some of them have already re-opened in parts of the country and few others are scheduled to re-start in the next phase of unlocking from next Monday.
A nationwide lockdown came into effect on March 25, which was initially announced for 21 days, but was extended thrice and the last fourth phase ended on May 31.
A graded exit from the lockdown began on June 1 and the next phase, beginning June 8, would see reopening of malls, hotels and restaurants, among other places, followed by further easing of the lockdown curbs through the remaining weeks of June and then in July.
Earlier in the morning update, the Health Ministry said the total number of positive cases has reached 2,16,919 with a record spike of 9,304 new cases since Wednesday 8 AM across the country, while the death toll has increased to 6,075 with 260 more fatalities in this period.
