Pandemic a patchwork of small successes, setbacks

Authorities in China appeared to be winning their battle against an outbreak of coronavirus in Beijing on Saturday, but in parts of the Americas the pandemic raged unabated. Brazil surpassed 1 million confirmed infections, second only to the United States.

Europe, in contrast, continued to emerge warily from lockdown.

The new coronavirus has infected more than 8.5 million people worldwide and killed more than 454,000, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The actual number is thought to be much higher because many cases are asymptomatic or go untested.

The global battle against Covid-19 is a patchwork of successes and setbacks at this point in the pandemic, quantified by the trajectory of the coronavirus in different countries.

In China, where the virus was first identified and where authorities hoped it had been vanquished, Beijing recorded a further drop in cases amid tightened containment measures. Officials reported 22 new cases in Beijing along with five others elsewhere in China. There were no new deaths and 308 people remained hospitalised.

South Korea recorded 67 new cases, the largest 24-hour increase in about three weeks. Most of them come from the densely populated Seoul area, where about half of the country’s 51 million people reside.

South Africa continues to loosen lockdown measures under economic pressure, despite reporting nearly 4000 more Covid19 cases on Saturday. Casinos, beauty salons and sit-down restaurant service are among the latest permitted activities as the country eases one of the world’s strictest lockdowns.

Britain lowered its coronavirus threat level one notch.

The UK has Europe’s highest and the world’s third-highest official death toll from the pandemic, with more than 42,500 virus-related fatalities reported as of Saturday.

Meanwhile, Germany reported the country’s highest daily increase in virus cases in a month after managing to contain its outbreak better than comparable large European nations. Many areas of Europe are dealing with new localised outbreaks, with some of the largest centred around meatprocessing plants. German officials said Saturday that the number of workers infected at a slaughterhouse in the northwest of the country had risen to 1029 but there was no evidence of ‘‘significant’’ spread beyond the workforce into the community. – AP