UK Reports Most New COVID-19 Cases Since May; India Sees New Record Surge: Live Updates

Summary:

• India reports new global recod
• UK sees highest case tally since May
• Jakarta graveyard overflowing with COVID dead
• France expands COVID warnings
• Victoria extends lockdown

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While the holiday weekend leads to a drop off in activity in the US, including a decline in COVID-19 testing rates, the UK just reported the highest number of new cases in a single day since May (the latest sign of a coronavirus comeback in Europe) while India cemented a new global daily record after reporting more than 90k new cases.

Britain reported nearly 3,000 new cases, – 2,988 to be exact – on Sunday, its largest daily tally since May 23. The country also saw 2 new deaths, bringing Britain’s death toll to 41,551, and its confirmed case total to 347,152.

A day earlier, the UK reported just 1,813 cases. Daily hospitalizations, meanwhile, have hardly budged from their lows.

Elsewhere in Europe, France placed seven more departments covering major cities including Lille, Strasbourg and Dijon on high alert as the country’s latest outbreaks accelerate. Of France’s 101 mainaland and overseas “departments”, 28 are now considered “red zones.” This comes amid a surge in new cases seen over the past week, but especially over the past 2 days.

On Sunday, India topped its own world record when it reported 90,632 daily new cases, the largest daily tally reported anywhere in the world. The new cases brought India’s total confirmed caseload to 4.11 million.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths in the world’s second-most-populous country rose by 1,065 to 70,626.

India is set to pass Brazil on Monday as the second-most affected country by total infections. After that, it will be behind only the US in terms of total cases.

While a recent testing campaign has been blamed for the country’s record-beating numbers, testing isn’t the only issue. India is in second place worldwide when it comes to overall tests administered, with 47,831,145, behind the US, with 86,763,797. But its rate is 35,322 per million compared with the global average of 69,512, the US with 261,844 and Brazil with 67,696.

Despite fervent protests that led to hundreds of arrests the other day, Australia’s coronavirus hotspot state of Victoria on Sunday extended its “hard” lockdown once again, adding another two weeks, which extends it until the end of September as infection rates have declined more slowly than hoped.

State Premier Daniel Andrews on Sunday extended the hard lockdown, in place since August 2, to September 28 with a slight relaxation, and explained how restrictions would gradually decline over the coming two months. The extension comes after Australia slumped into its first recession in decades.

Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, has been the epicentre of a second wave of the novel coronavirus, now accounting for roughly 75% of the country’s 26,282 cases and 90% of its 753 deaths.

The state on Sunday reported 63 new COVID-19 infections and five deaths, down from a peak of 725 new cases reported on Aug. 5.

Finally, as Philippines and Indonesia cement their status as the worst outbreaks in Southeast Asia, Al Jazeera reports that a cemetery in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta is reportedly running out of space as the number of deaths linked to the coronavirus continues to rise. Unfortunately, in swampy Jakarta, using portable refrigeration trucks might not be feasible, like it was in New York. Indonesia has reported roughly 190,000 cases, and roughly 8,000 dead.