Covid-19: Global death toll nears 3 million as India cases surge

Paris - Hopes that South Asian countries might have seen the worst of the pandemic have been dashed, with India recording over 2m new cases this month.

The global coronavirus death toll was expected to reach three million on Saturday, as the race for immunisation continues and countries like India grapple with rising infections and new lockdowns.

Live: All the latest Covid-19 developments in the UAE and around the world.

The virus that surfaced in late 2019 in central China and the ensuing pandemic has infected more than 100 million people, leaving billions more under crippling lockdowns and ravaging the global economy.

India’s capital New Delhi went into a weekend lockdown on Saturday as the world’s second-most populous nation faces more than 200,000 fresh daily cases and families clamouring for drugs and hospital beds.

Hopes that South Asian countries might have seen the worst of the pandemic have been dashed, with India recording over two million new cases this month alone and Bangladesh and Pakistan imposing new shutdowns.

In Japan, rising virus cases have stoked speculation that the Olympic Games — postponed last year due to the pandemic — could be cancelled.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, in his first meeting with US President Joe Biden, said his government was listening to experts and doing its “utmost” to prepare for the Tokyo games in July.

“They are doing everything possible to contain infection and to realise safe and secure games from scientific and objective perspectives,” Suga told a joint news conference, at which Biden backed Japan’s efforts to host the global event.

Live map: Global spread of coronavirus

Coronavirus preparations are being made for another global sporting showcase — the World Cup in Qatar next year.

The Gulf kingdom is in talks with coronavirus vaccine makers to ensure all fans attending the 2022 World Cup in the country have been vaccinated, its foreign minister said Friday.

The virus continues to impact events elsewhere in the world. On Saturday, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II bids a final farewell to her late husband, Prince Philip, at a funeral restricted by coronavirus and likely watched by millions from afar. The public has been asked to stay away because of the global pandemic.

In Brazil, the country with the third-highest death toll in the world, night shifts have been added to several cemeteries as diggers work around the clock to bury the dead.