Worldwide coronavirus cases cross 128 million

Gulf Today Report

There have been at least 128,261,601 reported infections globally and 2,913,000 reported deaths caused by the new coronavirus so far. COVID-19 infections are still rising in 87 countries, according to Reuters.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

So far, at least 141 countries have begun vaccinating people for the coronavirus and have administered at least 551,411,000 doses of the vaccine.

The US government has hit the accelerator on its shipments of vaccines.

A joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that the virus was probably transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, and that a lab leak was "extremely unlikely" as a cause.

The head of the World Health Organization said the report would be released publicly on Tuesday, but that further study was required.

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The US government has hit the accelerator on its shipments of vaccines, giving states the doses they say they need to finish vaccinating priority groups and open shots to all adults in the coming weeks.

India recorded 56,211 new cases of coronavirus, a slight dip from the country's record-breaking tallies over the last three days, data from the health ministry showed on Tuesday.

The country's tally dipped below the 60,000 mark after three days, a Reuters tally showed, with its richest state, Maharashtra, accounting for more than 31,000 of the 56,211 cases reported in the last 24 hours.

Deaths in the last 24 hours stood at 271, and 162,114 have died so far in the pandemic, the health ministry said.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 9,549 to 2,791,822, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday.

The reported death toll rose by 180 to 76,093, the tally showed.

Brazil recorded 1,660 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 38,927 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

Brazil's official death toll now stands at 313,866, according to ministry data, and the total number of cases stands at 12,573,615.

Brazil records 38,927 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. File photo

Authorities in Lebanon recorded 1,277 new COVID-19 cases over a 24 hour period on Monday, taking the total number of cases to 462,339.

The reported death poll reached 6,136 after 40 people died from COVID-19 related complications within 24 hours.

In the last 24 hours, Italy reported a total of 12,916 new Covid-19 cases, which took the overall tally to 3,544,957, as over half of its 20 regions turned into red zones, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Health.

In the same period, the country's death toll rose by 417 to 108,350, while the recoveries increased by 19,725 to over 2.87 million, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying.

On March 26, Health Minister Roberto Speranza signed an order designating which regions fall into which colour-coded zone, with the new rules going into effect on Monday through April 6.

Kuwait, on Monday, reported 1,251 coronavirus infections, bringing the total to 229,550, said the health ministry.

In a statement to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) the ministry's spokesman Dr. Abdullah Al-Sanad said that 12 people died due to the virus during the last 24 hours to take the death toll to 1,298.

The spokesman also noted that up to 8,104 virus tests were conducted during the last hours, affirming that the total PCR tests reached 2,037,799.

The spokesman also noted the recovery of 1,346 people from the disease, adding that the total recoveries in the country climbed to 213,942.