PARIS, April 23, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:
– India reeling –
Delhi hospitals issue desperate appeals for oxygen, and 13 Covid patients die in a fire, as India’s healthcare system buckles under a new wave of infections that sees another 330,000 cases and 2,000 deaths in the past 24 hours.
– Russia’s ‘non-working period’ –
President Vladimir Putin backs a call from health officials for a 10-day “non-working” period next month to slow a surge in the virus.
– Tokyo emergency –
Japan calls a new state of emergency in Tokyo and three other regions as the country battles rising infections just three months before the Olympics.
– ‘Not safe’ –
Australia’s diving team says it is “not safe” to travel to Japan as they withdraw from an Olympics test event.
– Indian variant in Belgium –
The variant driving the explosion of cases in India has now been detected in Belgium in a group of Indian nursing students who arrived in mid-April from Paris, with 20 testing positive.
– Flight ban –
With worries about the strain rising, Canada suspends all passenger flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days.
– Record borrowing –
Pandemic support measures have sent UK borrowing rocketing to the highest level since World War II, with public sector net borrowing ballooning to £303.1 billion ($420.8 billion) in the year to March.
– Snap Perth lockdown –
Australian authorities order a three-day lockdown in the western city of Perth after the virus escapes from a quarantine hotel housing infected international travellers.
– Still positive –
Singapore quarantines about 1,200 migrant workers from a dormitory after cases are discovered among men thought to have already recovered from the virus.
– Cognac comfort –
French spirits group Remy Cointreau says a boost from its Remy Martin cognac saved it from the worst economic effects of the pandemic, even though overall sales fell slightly.
– Over three million dead –
At least 3,073,969 people have died of Covid-19 around the world since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.
The US is the worst-affected country with 570,346 deaths, followed by Brazil with 383,502, Mexico with 214,095, India with 186,920 and Britain with 127,345.