8.3 C
New York
Thursday, March 28, 2024

India Confirms More Than 10k COVID-19 Infections For First Time, Brazilian Total Tops 800k: Live Updates

Courtesy of ZeroHedge

Summary:

  • For first time, India reports more than 10k cases in a day
  • Delhi accused of undercounting COVID-19 deaths
  • WHO warns global outbreak is worsening
  • England sees encouraging reduction in viral spread
  • Brazil, Russia, Mexico, India lead surge in global cases
  • Brazil crosses 800k cases
  • Beijing delays school reopening after finding 3 new cases

* * *

Update (0850ET): During his latest media appearance, White House economic advisor and former CNBC host Larry Kudlow is once again insisting that the White House is seeing "no evidence" of a second wave (to be fair, they also missed evidence of the first) and that under no circumstances will the economy shut down again. He added that he expects "most" small businesses in the country will reopen by next month.

Update (0800ET): For the first time since the coronavirus arrived in India back in late January, the country's public health officials have counted more than 10,000 confirmed new cases in a day.

* * *

Earlier this week, while many Americans (and many more abroad) were focused on the demonstrations sparked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis PD custody, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned during one of the NGO's regular press briefings in Geneva that "although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening."

That formidable reality hit the market like a brick through a Starbucks window on Thursday, as the Dow plunged nearly 2000 points in a brief but painful reminder of March's untenable market conditions.

But since then, millions of Americans have gotten free money from the government in the form of "enhanced" unemployment benefits and, of course, the stim check – but we digress. Like Dr. Tedros said, the number of new cases confirmed daily across the world has continued to climb, following a brief plateau, as India, Mexico, Brazil and Russia have emerged as the new global hotspots.

Indian PM Narendra Modi won plaudits for a restrictive lockdown that began in late March and endured until this week. But as restrictions have eased over the last month, it appears the number of newly reported cases has surged beyond the level that could have been justified by the increase in testing capacity alone. Using a logarithmic scale helps highlight the magnitude of the outbreak, which as many have argued, doesn't constitute a 'second wave', since the first wave never really receded.

Adding to the uncomfortable spotlight on India, the FT reported last night on allegations that the government in New Delhi has been under-reporting coronavirus deaths as the country eases its strict lockdown in an attempt to kick-start the economy.

Citing doctors at five of the 15 hospitals in the capital city, which, along with Mumbai, is one of the two worst-hit areas of the world's second most-populous country, the FT claimed that the number of dead killed by the virus in the city has far outstripped the official numbers reported to public health officials. The figures provided by the doctors exceeded the official tally by more than 100 deaths. And that's just across 5 hospitals in the city. At this rate, India is report nearly 400 deaths a day, the highest levels since the virus arrived in the country.

After moving to swiftly address signs of a resurgent outbreak in Wuhan and in a northeastern province, Chinese health officials on Friday announced that they had discovered 2 new cases of the virus over the last 24 hours. The two infected individuals who live in the city's Fengtai district are said to be colleagues. In response, the city is cleaning a local market, and delaying the reopening of in-class school after finding 3 new cases.

We reported last night that Houston, Texas is weighing whether to reopen an emergency COVID-19 hospital that was never used as the number if cases in the area surges, while officials consider whether to reimpose a stay-at-home order.

On CNBC, one reporter described the picture in the US as "a tale of two countries" with states in the south and west reporting a sharp upsurge in cases and hospitalizations, while the Greater New York area continues to see cases and deaths fall to lows not seen since the early days of the pandemic. In some states, like Oregon, testing and contact-tracing have been blamed for the uptick in new cases, while Arizona, which reopened much more quickly than Oregon, has seen new cases outstrip the increase in testing.

According to the NYT, 23 states are seeing the number of new cases increasing on a daily basis.

Source: NYT

As the death toll skyrockets in Brazil, volunteers critical of President Jair Bolsonaro's response (or rather, lack thereof) dug 100 graves with black crosses on Rio's Copacabana Beach in memory of the 40,000 Brazilians who have succumbed to the virus, according to official numbers, NPR reports.

The protest was held after Brazilian public health officials reported 30,412 new cases of the virus and 1,239 new deaths, for a total of 802,828 cases and 40,919 deaths.

Like India, Brazil has been repeatedly accused of underreporting both cases and deaths; on both, Brazil ranks second only to the US.

Meanwhile in Europe, even the UK, which has struggled with a particularly intractable outbreak, is finally seeing evidence of a sustained decline. The number of people with the virus in England continues to fall, according to a weekly infection survey by the ONS. It follows news that the UK economy shrank at a record 20.4% in April, the largest contraction on record.

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Stay Connected

157,452FansLike
396,312FollowersFollow
2,280SubscribersSubscribe

Latest Articles

0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x