Worldwide coronavirus cases near 138 million

Gulf Today Report

More than 137.82 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 3,104,534 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

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

India reported a record 200,000 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and the financial hub of Mumbai entered a lockdown, as many hospitals treating coronavirus patients reported severe shortages of beds and oxygen supplies.

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India's daily coronavirus caseload hits 200,000 for the first time

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The surge was the seventh record daily increase in the last eight days and comes as India battles a massive second wave of infections that has its epicentre in the economically significant state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai. The western state accounts for about a quarter of the country's total cases.

India reported 200,739 COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours, according to health ministry data released Thursday. Deaths stood at 1,038, taking the total to 173,123.

France's coronavirus death toll is expected to pass 100,000 on Thursday after a year of hospital tensions, on-and-off lockdowns and personal loss that have left families nationwide grieving the pandemic’s unending, devastating toll.

France's coronavirus death toll is expected to pass 100,000 on Thursday.

The country of 67 million will be the eighth in the world to reach the symbolic mark, and the third in Europe after the United Kingdom and Italy.

The cumulative death toll since the start of the epidemic totaled 99,777 on Wednesday evening. In recent days, French health authorities have been reporting about 300 new daily deaths from COVID-19.

Lionel Petitpas, president of the association "Victims of COVID-19,” told the Associated Press that the number of 100,000 deaths is "an important threshold.”

German Health Minister Jens Spahn urged the country's 16 federal states on Thursday to impose tougher restrictions quickly to try to slow a third wave of the coronavirus and not to wait until a national law on measures is passed.

His appeal came as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases jumped on Thursday by 29,426 to 3.073 million, the biggest increase since Jan. 8. The reported death toll rose by 293 to 79,381, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) showed.

Germany imposes tougher restrictions quickly to try to slow a third wave of the coronavirus.

"We know from last autumn what happens when we don't act quickly," Spahn told reporters, adding that doctors expect some 6,000 patients to be in intensive care by the end of the month.

RKI President Lothar Wieler described the situation in hospitals as "dramatic" and called on politicians to take action to break the third wave now.

Russia reported 8,944 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 2,455 in Moscow, taking the official national tally to 4,675,153.

The government coronavirus task force said 398 people had died in the past 24 hours, pushing its death toll to 104,398.

The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and has reported a much higher toll of more than 225,000 from April 2020 to February.

Hungary's government is in talks with all possible suppliers to make up for an expected shortfall of half a million vaccine doses, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff Gergely Gulyas said on Thursday.

"Inoculations require vaccines and we know that another one of the shots ordered by Brussels will be missing, the Janssen vaccines will not arrive. That means half a million fewer shots," Gulyas told an online briefing.

Kuwait's Ministry of Health reported 1,402 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the total number of infections in the country to 251,675.

The ministry added that the total number of recoveries reached 235,053 after 1,296 new recoveries were reported.