Sun 05 July 2020:
The previous biggest daily global increase had been 189,00, on Tuesday.
The World Health Organization says member states reported more than 212,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 to the global body Saturday, the highest single-day increase since the start of the pandemic.
The Geneva-based WHO said the highest number of new infections was reported from the Americas region, which includes the United States and Brazil, with almost 130,000 confirmed cases.
WHO’s count can differ from other global case tallies due to official reporting delays.
Brazil, the world’s sixth most populous nation, with more than 210 million people, is one of the global hot spots of the pandemic. There have been more than nearly 1.6m confirmed cases and 64,265 deaths, according to Health Ministry data. Both are thought to be undercounts due to insufficient testing.
Mexico recorded another milestone on Saturday, moving into fifth for the country with the worst death toll. It jumped France to report 30,366 fatalities from Covid-19, with infections standing at 252,165, according to Johns Hopkins figures.
The total number of COVID-19 cases approached 240,000 in Iran on Saturday. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia surpassed Turkey in the tally of coronavirus infections with nearly 206,000 confirmed cases.
Iran, the hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East region, reported 2,449 new cases, brining the total number of infections to 237,878.
The country also reported 148 new deaths from the virus, raising the death toll to 11,408. A total of 198,949 coronavirus patients have recovered, with 3,136 still in critical condition.
Saudi Arabia announced 4,128 new cases and 56 more deaths, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 205,929 and the death toll to 1,858.
The kingdom also reported 2,642 more recovered patients, taking the total recoveries to 143,256.
In the meantime, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey climbed to 204,610 after 1,154 new infections were reported, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted.
South Africa on Saturday reported more than 10,000 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily jump on record for the country as it hurtles towards an anticipated spike.
Ghana’s president has gone into self-isolation for two weeks as a precautionary measure despite testing negative for coronavirus, the government said, after one of his contacts was confirmed to have the illness.
Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region locks down an area with around 200,000 residents following a surge in cases.
Pubs reopened in England on Saturday amid an easing of coronavirus restrictions.
The World Health Organization said on Saturday that it was discontinuing its trials of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and combination HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir for patients in hospital with Covid-19 after they failed to reduce mortality.
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