Global COVID-19 Cases Surpass 22 Million... Southeast Asian Variant Spreading
India's Daily Cases Exceed 50,000... Higher Than USA and Brazil
[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) worldwide has increased by 2 million in less than ten days, showing no signs of slowing down. While the spread has slowed in North and South America, including the United States and Brazil, signs of outbreaks are emerging mainly in Southeast Asia. The balloon effect, where pressing one side causes the other side to pop up, seems to apply to the COVID-19 situation as well.
According to the global statistics site Worldometer's COVID-19 tally, on the 17th (local time), India's daily confirmed cases reached 54,288, significantly surpassing the United States (38,739) and Brazil (23,038). As of that day, India recorded a cumulative total of 2,701,604 confirmed cases, ranking third in the world after the United States (5,611,154) and Brazil (3,363,235). India's cumulative death toll was reported as 51,925.
In particular, in India, a variant of the coronavirus with strong transmissibility was discovered following Malaysia, making quarantine efforts even more difficult. Local media such as Hindustan Times reported that the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in New Delhi conducted experiments on 1,536 virus samples collected from COVID-19 patients in Odisha state in the east and identified 73 variant viruses.
The day before, Malaysia discovered a variant virus with ten times the transmissibility of the virus first identified in Wuhan, China, raising concerns among health authorities. Noor Hisham Abdullah, Director-General of Health Malaysia, warned on Facebook, "Four mutations have occurred in two virus outbreak hotspots, including Sibu Ganga," adding, "The variant is highly contagious and can be easily transmitted by super-spreaders."
The variant virus is also spreading rapidly in other Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines. In the Philippines, where daily confirmed cases had hovered around 2,000 until last month, the number surged to 6,871 on the 10th of this month. Since then, new cases have exceeded 3,000 per day. According to Worldometer's tally, the Philippines' cumulative confirmed cases reached 164,474 as of that day.
Vietnam, which has been blocking its borders and banning foreign entry since March, reported confirmed cases in Da Nang on the 25th of last month, after which COVID-19 spread to 15 regions including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, resulting in a cumulative total of 983 confirmed cases to date. Among them, 24 people have died. Laos, which declared the end of COVID-19 in Southeast Asia for the first time in June, has reported 22 cumulative confirmed cases since an infection was detected on the 24th of last month.
Japan is also on alert as deaths surge due to the second wave of infections. According to NHK, Japan recorded 15 deaths in one day, the highest number since the nationwide state of emergency was lifted in May.
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