NEW DELHI: India reported 76,472 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, slightly lower than the record breaking numbers of the past couple of days, but extending a run that has made the country’s outbreak currently the world’s worst.
India has reported a total of 3.46 million cases during the pandemic, a tally that places them behind the United States and Brazil in terms of total caseload. However, the south Asian country has reported higher single-day case rises than both those countries for almost two weeks.
India’s death toll rose by 1,021 to 62,550, data from the federal health ministry showed, even as local media reported that some nationwide restrictions on travel could be eased from next week.
The government might allow underground train networks to partially reopen, local media reported, an easing that Delhi’s chief minister has said is necessary to get the city back to full speed.
The western Indian state of Maharashtra, home to India’s financial capital Mumbai, recorded 331 fatalities, the steepest single-day increase among all states over the past two days.
On Friday, lawmaker H. Vasanthakumar from the country’s main opposition party Congress became the latest high-profile figure to die from COVID-19, the infection caused by the novel coronavirus.
“The news of Kanyakumari MP, Shri H Vasanthakumar’s untimely demise due to COVID-19 has come as a shock,” Rahul Gandhi, a leading member of the Congress party said in a tweet late on Friday.
India records another surge in daily coronavirus cases
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India records another surge in daily coronavirus cases
- India has reported a total of 3.46 million cases during the pandemic
- The government might allow underground train networks to partially reopen
Most of Iranian women’s soccer team leave Australia
GOLD COAST: The Iranian women’s soccer team left Australia without seven squad members after tearful protests of their departure outside Sydney Airport and frantic final efforts inside the terminal by Australian officials, who sought to ensure the women understood they were being offered asylum.
As the team’s flight time drew nearer and they passed through security late on Tuesday, each woman was taken aside to meet alone with officials who explained through interpreters that they could choose not to return to Iran.
Before the team traveled to the airport, seven women had accepted humanitarian visas allowing them to remain permanently in Australia and were ushered to a safe location by Australian police officers.
One has since changed her mind, underscoring the tense and precarious nature of their decisions.
“In Australia, people are able to change their mind,” said Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, who had hours earlier posted photos of the seven women granted humanitarian visas to his social media accounts, their identities clearly visible.
After what Burke described as “emotional” meetings between the remaining women who reached the airport and Australian officials, the rest of the team declined offers of asylum and boarded their flight.
It was a dramatic conclusion to an episode that had gripped Australia since the Iranian team’s first game at the Asian Cup soccer tournament, when they remained silent during their national anthem.
