NEW DELHI: India reported nearly 55,000 new coronavirus cases on Sunday and Japan recorded more than 1,500 for a second day while Florida braced for a hurricane that threatened to hamper anti-disease efforts.
India’s 54,735 cases were down from the previous day’s record 57,118 but raised the country’s total to 1.75 million. The month of July accounted for more than 1.1 million of those cases.
The major cities of New Delhi and Mumbai might have passed their peaks, a government expert, Randeep Guleria, said. Subways, cinemas and other public facilities are closed until Aug. 31.
In Japan, the government said all but five of its 1,540 new cases were transmitted domestically. The daily total was close to Friday’s record of 1,579.
The spike in Japanese cases, most of them in their 20s and 30s, prompted warnings young people were letting their guard down. The governor of Tokyo, which has about one-third of the new infections, says she might declare an emergency to contain the outbreak.
Also Sunday, China and South Korea reported more infections but spikes in both countries appeared to be tailing off.
China had 49 new confirmed cases, up from the previous day’s 45. Thirty were in Xinjiang in the northwest, where authorities are trying to contain an outbreak focused on the regional capital, Urumqi.
South Korea reported 30 new cases but said only eight were acquired in the country.
The government warned earlier case numbers would rise as South Koreans came home from the Middle East and other places with outbreaks. Authorities say cases from abroad are less threatening because arrivals are quarantined for two weeks.
On Saturday, the leader of a secretive Korean church was arrested in an investigation into whether the group hampered the anti-virus response after thousands of worshippers were infected in February and March.
Governments worldwide have reported 684,075 deaths and 17.8 million cases, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University.
The United States has the world’s biggest number of cases at 4.6 million, or one-quarter of the total, and 154,361 deaths.
Authorities in Florida reported 179 deaths, raising the state’s total to more than 7,000, as Hurricane Isaias headed for its heavily populated coast.
Authorities closed beaches, parks and virus testing sites. The governor warned residents to expect power outages and said they should have a week’s supply of water and food. Officials wrestled with how to prepare storm shelters while enforcing social distancing to avoid spreading the virus.
The storm was expected to be near the Florida coast early Sunday.
On Saturday, South Africa reported 10,107 new cases, raising its total to 503,290.
That put the country fifth behind the United States, Brazil, Russia and India in total cases, though its population of 58 million is much smaller than theirs.
In Europe, the number of new cases reported in Italy dipped below 300 for the first time.
In Austria, an employee in the chancellery tested positive for the virus but didn’t work directly with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian Press Agency reported.
India reports 55,000 virus cases, Florida faces hurricane
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India reports 55,000 virus cases, Florida faces hurricane
- India’s 54,735 cases were down from the previous day’s record 57,118 but raised the country’s total to 1.75 million
UK interior minister insists asylum reforms ‘fair’ amid blowback
- Mahmood argued in a speech that she was “restoring order and control” to Britain’s borders
- Amnesty International called the latest measure a “punitive blow”
LONDON: Britain’s interior minister doubled down Thursday on her tough stance on immigration despite criticism from charities and unease within the ruling Labour party that it is shedding left-wing voters.
Shabana Mahmood announced that asylum seekers who break the law or work illegally will be thrown out of government-funded accommodation and lose their support payments.
The policy forms part of a major overhaul of migration rules announced late last year and modelled on Denmark’s strict asylum system that aims to slash irregular migration to the UK.
Mahmood argued in a speech that she was “restoring order and control” to Britain’s borders and that her overhaul of the asylum was “firm but fair,” adding she would open new and safe legal routes.
But Amnesty International called the latest measure a “punitive blow” that “risks forcing people into destitution, homelessness and exploitation while they wait for their claims to be decided.”
Mahmood’s reforms are widely seen as an attempt to stem support for the hard-right Reform UK party, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage.
It has topped opinion polls for a year, in part because of the government’s failure to stop thousands of migrants from arriving in England from northern France on small boats.
But her stance has also been credited with contributing to Labour losing support to the progressive Green party, which won a local election in a traditional Labour heartland last week.
Mahmood said there was a middle path between Farage’s “nightmare pulling up the drawbridge and shutting out the world” and Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s “fairy tale of open borders.”
Her reform that makes refugee status temporary, including for accompanied children, came into force this week.
The status will be reviewed every 30 months, with refugees forced to return to their home countries once those are deemed safe.
They will also need to wait for 20 years, instead of the current five, before they can apply for permanent residency.
She also announced earlier this week that the government would stop issuing education visas to nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan.
It said there had been a surge in asylum applications by students from those countries and almost 135,000 asylum seekers in total had entered the UK using legal routes since 2021.
