COVID-19 cases
North Korea’s suspected COVID-19 caseload nears 2 million
North Korea on Thursday reported 262,270 more suspected COVID-19 cases as its pandemic caseload neared 2 million — a week after the country acknowledged the outbreak and scrambled to slow infections in its unvaccinated population.
The country is also trying to prevent its fragile economy from deteriorating further, but the outbreak could be worse than officially reported since the country lacks virus tests and other health care resources and may be underreporting deaths to soften the political impact on authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea’s anti-virus headquarters reported a single additional death, raising its toll to 63, which experts have said is abnormally small compared to the suspected number of coronavirus infections.
The official Korean Central News Agency said more than 1.98 million people have become sick with fever since late April. Most are believed to have COVID-19, though only a few omicron variant infections have been confirmed. At least 740,160 people are in quarantine, the news agency reported.
North Korea’s outbreak comes amid a provocative streak of weapons demonstrations, including its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile in nearly five years in March. Experts don’t believe the COVID-19 outbreak will slow Kim’s brinkmanship aimed at pressuring the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
READ: Nearly 1 million COVID-19 deaths: A look at the US numbers
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Wednesday that U.S. intelligence shows there’s a “genuine possibility” that North Korea will conduct another ballistic missile test or nuclear test around President Joe Biden’s visit to South Korea and Japan that begins later this week.
After maintaining a dubious claim that it had kept the virus out of the country for two and a half years, North Korea acknowledged its first COVID-19 infections May 12 and has described a rapid spread since. Kim has called the outbreak a “great upheaval,” berated officials for letting the virus spread and restricted the movement of people and supplies between cities and regions.
Workers were mobilized to find people with suspected COVID-19 symptoms who were then sent to quarantine — the main method of curbing the outbreak since North Korea is short of medical supplies and intensive care units that lowered COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in other nations.
State media images showed health workers in hazmat suits guarding Pyongyang’s closed-off streets, disinfecting buildings and streets and delivering food and other supplies to apartment blocks.
Despite the vast numbers of sick people and the efforts to curb the outbreak, state media describe large groups of workers continuing to gather at farms, mining facilities, power stations and construction sites. Experts say North Korea cannot afford a lockdown that would hinder production in an economy already broken by mismanagement, crippling U.S.-led sanctions over Kim’s nuclear weapons ambitions and pandemic border closures.
North Korea also must urgently work to protect its crops from a drought that hit during the crucial rice-planting season — a worrisome development in a country that has long suffered from food insecurity. State media also said that Kim’s trophy construction projects, including the building of 10,000 new houses in the town of Hwasong, are being “propelled as scheduled.”
Also Read: North Korea confirms 1st Covid outbreak, Kim orders lockdown
“All sectors of the national economy are stepping up the production to the maximum while strictly observing the anti-epidemic steps taken by the party and the state,” Korean Central News Agency reported.
The virus controls at workplaces include separating workers by their job classifications and quarantining worker units at construction sites and in its key metal, chemical, electricity and coal industries, KCNA said.
Kee Park, a global health specialist at Harvard Medical School who has worked on health care projects in North Korea, said the country’s number of new cases should start to slow because of the strengthened preventive measures.
But it will be challenging for North Korea to provide treatment for the already large number of people with COVID-19. Deaths may possibly approach tens of thousands, considering the size of its caseload, and international assistance would be crucial, Park said.
“The best way to prevent these deaths are to treat with antivirals like Paxlovid,” which would significantly lower the risk of severe disease or death, Park said. “This is much faster and easier to implement than sending ventilators to build ICU capacity.”
Other experts say providing a small number of vaccines for high-risk groups such as the elderly would prevent deaths, though mass vaccinations would be impossible at this stage for the population of 26 million.
It’s unclear, however, if North Korea would accept outside help. It already shunned vaccines offered by the U.N.-backed COVAX distribution program, and the nation’s leaders have expressed confidence the country can overcome the crisis on its own.
Kim Tae-hyo, deputy national security adviser for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, told reporters on Thursday that North Korea has ignored offers of help from South Korea and the United States to contain the outbreak.
Experts have said North Korea may be more willing to accept help from China, its main ally. South Korea’s government had said it couldn’t confirm media reports that North Korea flew planes to bring back emergency supplies from China this week.
India records 2,841 new COVID-19 cases, 9 more deaths
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,116,254 on Friday, as 2,841 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
Over 36 percent of the cases were reported from Delhi, where there are 4,928 active cases with the positivity rate standing at 3.64 percent.
Besides, nice deaths from the pandemic registered across the country since Thursday morning took the total death toll to 524,190.
Also Read: India COVID-19 tally rises to-26,530,132 daily deaths fall below 4000
There are still 18,604 active COVID-19 cases in the country with a fall of 463 active cases during the past 24 hours.
So far, 42,573,460 people have been successfully cured and discharged from hospitals, of whom 3,295 were discharged during the past 24 hours.
Covid-19: Bangladesh sees zero death for 19th straight day
No Covid-related death was reported in Bangladesh in 24 hours until Monday morning.
With this, the country witnessed zero Covid death for the 19th consecutive day and the total fatalities from the pandemic remained unchanged at 29,127.
Thirty new Covid cases were recorded during the period which took the total caseload to 1,952,829.
Read: Global Covid cases top 517 million
The daily test positivity rate slightly dropped to 0.40 per cent from Sunday's 0.41 per cent as 7,413 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Sunday, the number of cases was lower as 23 new cases were reported.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 percent. The recovery rate rose to 97.18 percent as 272 patients recovered during this period.
In April, the country reported only five Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
Among the five deaths during the period, two were unvaccinated patients while three were vaccinated with two doses of the Covid vaccine.
Read: Bangladesh ranks top among the countries to receive free Covid vaccine from WHO: Health minister
The country reported its first zero Covid death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 cases, since the pandemic broke out here in March 2020.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest positivity rate of 33.37 percent.
The country registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 in the same year.
Covid: Bangladesh reports 10 new cases, no death
Bangladesh reported 10 Covid cases in 24 hours until Saturday morning which took the total caseload to 1,952,776.
With no new Covid death reported during this period the country's total fatalities from the pandemic remained unchanged at 29,127.
The daily test positivity rate declined to 0.38 per cent from Friday’s 0.55 per cent as 2,656 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Also read: Bangladesh ranks top among the countries to receive free Covid vaccine from WHO: Health minister
On Friday, the number of cases was higher as 19 new cases were reported.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 percent. The recovery rate rose to 97.16 percent as 217 patients recovered during this period.
Bangladesh has advanced eight notches to rank 5th out of 121 countries worldwide on Nikkei's Covid-19 Recovery Index.
With a score of 80 on the index, Bangladesh ranked only below Qatar, the UAE, Cambodia and Rwanda in the latest edition of the index published Thursday.
In April, the country reported only five Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
Among the five deaths during the period, two were unvaccinated patients while three were vaccinated with two doses of the Covid vaccine.
Also read: Covid recovery index: Bangladesh 5th in the world, top in South Asia
The country reported its first zero Covid death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 cases, since the pandemic broke out here in March 2020.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest positivity rate of 33.37 percent.
The country registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 in the same year.
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It’s not over: COVID-19 cases are on the rise again in US
Yet again, the U.S. is trudging into what could be another COVID-19 surge, with cases rising nationally and in most states after a two-month decline.
One big unknown? “We don’t know how high that mountain’s gonna grow,” said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University.
No one expects a peak nearly as high as the last one, when the contagious omicron version of the coronavirus ripped through the population.
But experts warn that the coming wave – caused by a mutant called BA.2 that’s thought to be about 30% more contagious – will wash across the nation. They worry that hospitalizations, which are already ticking up in some parts of the Northeast, will rise in a growing number of states in the coming weeks. And the case wave will be bigger than it looks, they say, because reported numbers are vast undercounts as more people test at home without reporting their infections or skip testing altogether.
At the height of the previous omicron surge, reported daily cases reached into the hundreds of thousands. As of Thursday, the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases rose to 39,521, up from 30,724 two weeks earlier, according to data from Johns Hopkins collected by The Associated Press.
Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute, said the numbers will likely keep growing until the surge reaches about a quarter the height of the last “monstrous” one. BA.2 may well have the same effect in the U.S. as it did in Israel, where it created a “bump” in the chart measuring cases, he said.
Also read: Fewer boys return to schools than girls after long Covid hiatus: Study
Keeping the surge somewhat in check, experts said, is a higher level of immunity in the U.S. from vaccination or past infection compared with early winter.
But Ray said the U.S. could wind up looking like Europe, where the BA.2 surge was “substantial” in some places that had comparable levels of immunity. “We could have a substantial surge here,” he said.
Both experts said BA.2 will move through the country gradually. The Northeast has been hit hardest so far — with more than 90% of new infections caused by BA.2 last week compared with 86% nationally. As of Thursday, the highest rates of new COVID cases per capita over the past 14 days were in Vermont, Rhode Island, Alaska, New York and Massachusetts. In Washington, D.C., which also ranks in the top 10 for rates of new cases, Howard University announced it was moving most undergraduate classes online for the rest of the semester because of “a significant increase in COVID-19 positivity” in the district and on campus.
Some states, such as Rhode Island and New Hampshire, saw the average of daily new cases rise by more than 100% in two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins data.
In New Hampshire, the increase in cases comes two weeks after the closure of all 11 state-managed vaccination sites, and the governor is being pressured by some advocates to reverse course.
Joseph Wendelken, spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Health, said the metric they are most focused on right now is hospitalizations, which remain relatively low. About 55 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized, compared with more than 600 at one point in the pandemic.
Officials credit high vaccination rates. State statistics show 99% of Rhode Island adults are at least partially vaccinated and 48% have gotten the booster dose that scientists say is key in protecting against severe illness with omicron.
Vermont also has relatively high levels of vaccination and fewer patients in the hospital than during the height of the first omicron wave. But Dr. Mark Levine, the health commissioner there, said hospitalizations and the numbers of patients in intensive care units are both up slightly, although deaths have not risen.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that new hospital admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19 were up slightly in New England and the New York region.
On the West Coast, modelers from Oregon Health & Science University are projecting a slight increase in hospitalizations over the next two months in that state, where cases have also risen steeply.
As the wave moves across the country, experts said states with low rates of vaccination may face substantially more infections and severe cases that wind up in the hospital.
Ray said government leaders must be careful to strike the right tone when talking to people about protecting themselves and others after COVID restrictions have largely been lifted. Philadelphia recently became the first major U.S. city to reinstate its indoor mask mandate after a sharp increase in infections. But Vermont’s Levine said there are no plans to bring back any of the restrictions that were imposed earlier during the pandemic.
“It’s going to be hard to institute restrictive, draconian measures,” Ray said. “Fortunately, we have some tools that we can use to mitigate risk. And so I hope that leaders will emphasize the importance for people to watch the numbers,” be aware of risks and consider taking precautions such as wearing masks and getting vaccinated and boosted if they’re not already.
Lynne Richmond, a 59-year-old breast cancer survivor who lives in Silver Spring, Md., said she plans to get her second booster and keep wearing her mask in public as cases rise in her state and nearby Washington, D.C.
“I never really stopped wearing my mask…I’ve stayed ultra-vigilant,” she said. “I feel like I’ve come this far; I don’t want to get COVID.”
At the 250-bed New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton, staff are still wearing masks and social distancing. Veterans are allowed limited excursions to places like an antique race car museum and restaurants where they can have a separate room and the wait staff is masked.
Vigilance is a good strategy, experts said, because the coronavirus is constantly throwing curveballs. One of the latest: even more contagious subvariants of BA.2 found in New York state, known as BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1. And scientists warn that new and potentially dangerous variants could arise at any time.
“We shouldn’t be thinking the pandemic is over,” Topol said. “We should still keep our guard up.”
Global Covid cases top 479 million
The overall number of Covid cases has surged past 479 million as the pandemic enters into its third year.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 479,000,756 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,114,171 Saturday morning.
The US has recorded 79,936,777 cases so far and 976,505 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,018,032 on Saturday, as 1,660 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry data.
Read: India reports 1,660 new COVID-19 cases
Besides, as many as 4,100 deaths due to the pandemic were reported since Friday morning, taking the total death toll to 520,855.
This sudden rise in the number of deaths in the country was because "4,005 deaths were reconciled by Maharashtra", said a senior official at the federal health ministry.
Meanwhile, Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January last year, registered 29,809,769 cases as of Saturday, while its Covid death toll rose to 658,855.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh logged 102 fresh Covid cases in 24 hours till Friday morning, taking the total caseload to 19,51,174.
As per the latest government data, the country’s total fatalities remained unchanged at 29,118 as no death was reported during the period.
The daily positivity rate increased to 1.03 per cent from Wednesday’s 0.76 per cent after testing 9,832 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Besides, the mortality rate remained unchanged too at 1.49 per cent.
The recovery rate rose to 96.15 per cent with the recovery of 1,268 more patients during the 24-hour period.
Read: 57 Rohingyas rescued while being trafficked to Malaysia; 2 held
The country reported its first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 infections, since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest daily positivity rate at 33.37 per cent reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.
Besides, the country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year.
Bangladesh logs zero Covid-linked deaths again
Bangladesh reported zero Covid-linked death with 62 fresh cases in 24 hours till Saturday morning
On Friday, the country logged two Covid-related deaths with 106 cases after witnessing zero death from the virus infection for three consecutive days.
On Tuesday, the country logged zero Covid-related deaths after more than three months.
The country reported first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 last year along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.
Meanwhile, the daily positivity rate declined to 0.83 per cent from Friday’s 1.16 per cent after testing 7,451 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Also read: Global Covid cases top 467 million
With the latest numbers country’s total fatalities remained unchanged at 29,114 while the caseload mounted to 19,50,527.
Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent.
The recovery rate rose to 95.85 per cent with the recovery of 1,014 more patients during the 24-hour period.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest daily positivity rate at 33.37 per cent reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.
Also read: After three days with no Covid deaths, two reported dead of virus Friday
Besides, the country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year.
COVID-19 cases more than double in China's growing outbreak
China's new COVID-19 cases Tuesday more than doubled from the previous day as the country faces by far its biggest outbreak since the early days of the pandemic.
The National Health Commission said 3,507 new locally spread cases had been identified in the latest 24-hour period, up from 1,337 a day earlier.
A fast-spreading variant known as “stealth omicron” is testing China’s zero-tolerance strategy, which had kept the virus at bay since the deadly initial outbreak in the city of Wuhan in early 2020. While the numbers are low compared to elsewhere in the world, the more than 10,000 cases China recorded in the first two weeks of March far exceed previous flare-ups.
Also read: Global Covid cases near 460 million
No new deaths have been reported in the multiple outbreaks across China. Most of the new cases were in northeast China’s Jilin province, where 2,601 were reported. Smaller outbreaks have hit more than a dozen provinces and major cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Jilin has barred residents from leaving the province and from traveling between cities within it. The 9 million residents of Changchun, the provincial capital and an auto manufacturing hub, have been locked down since Friday as authorities conduct repeated rounds of mass testing both there and in the city of Jilin.
More than 1,000 medical workers have been flown in from other provinces along with pandemic response supplies, and the province has mobilized 7,000 military reservists to help with the response.
Also read: India logs 2,503 new COVID-19 cases, total rises to 42,993,494
Elsewhere in China, Shandong province had the most new cases with 106. Guangdong province in the southeast, where the metropolis and major tech center of Shenzhen has been locked down since Sunday, reported 48 new cases. Shanghai had nine, and Beijing reported six.
Global Covid cases top 436 million
The overall number of Covid cases has surged past 436 million as Omicron infections keep rising across the world.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 436,385, 844 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,955,315 Tuesday morning.
The US has recorded 79,035,756 cases so far and 950,408 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 42,930,015 on Tuesday, as 5,885 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, as per the federal health ministry data.
Also read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Death toll drops to 4 with positivity rate at 3.65%
Besides, 211 deaths due to the pandemic since Saturday morning took the death toll to 514,054.
Meanwhile, Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January last year, registered 28,787,620 cases as of Tuesday, while its Covid death toll rose to 649,443.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh logged four more Covid-linked deaths with 897 fresh cases in 24 hours till Monday morning.
The daily positivity rate slightly declined to 3.65% from Sunday’s 4.01% after testing 24,605 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Sunday, Bangladesh reported nine Covid-linked deaths with 864 fresh cases. On Saturday, less than 1000 cases were reported after 52 days.
The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 29,037 and the caseload to 19,43,577.
Of the 67 deaths recorded from February 21 to February 27, some 26.5% received Covid vaccines while 73.5% did not, the DGHS said.
Also read: Bangladesh ranks first in South Asia in tackling Covid-19 pandemic: Health Minister
Among the new deceased, two were men and two women. Two deaths were reported from Dhaka division while one each from Chattogram and Khulna divisions.
Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49%. However, the recovery rate increased to 93.37% with the recovery of 7,976 more patients during the 24-hour period.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its earlier highest daily positivity rate at 33.37% reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.
On December 9 last year, Bangladesh again logged zero Covid-related death after nearly three weeks as the pandemic was apparently showing signs of easing.
The country reported its first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 last year along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.
Besides, the country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year.
Global covid cases top 431 million
The overall number of Covid cases has surged past 431 million as Omicron infections keep rising across the globe.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 431,186,116 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,927,226 Friday morning.
The US has recorded 78,796,234 cases so far and 944,756 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 42,893,585 on Thursday, as 12,406 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, as per the federal health ministry's data.
Also read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Positivity rate declines further, 10 more die
Besides, 304 deaths due to the pandemic since Wednesday morning took the total death toll to 513,258.
Meanwhile, Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January last year, registered 28,580,995 cases as of Thursday, while its Covid death toll rose to 647,486.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh logged 10 more Covid-linked deaths with 1,516 fresh cases in 24 hours till Thursday morning as the positivity rate and the number of deaths keep declining.
The daily positivity rate slightly declined to 5.53% from Wednesday’s 5.58% after testing 27,350 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Wednesday, Bangladesh reported five more Covid-linked deaths with 1,298 fresh cases.
The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 29,005 while the caseload to 19,39,651.
Among the new deceased, eight were men and two were women.
Of the deaths, three each were reported from Dhaka and Chattogram divisions, two from Rangpur and one each from Khulna and Sylhet divisions.
Also read: Learning from Covid, Modi govt plans big AI push for disease surveillance across India
Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.50%.
However, the recovery rate rose to 92.09% with the recovery of 6,459 more patients during the 24-hour period.