ADB: Covid crisis pushed 75-80m people into poverty

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed an estimated 75 million to 80 million more people in developing Asia and the Pacific into extreme poverty in 2020, according to a new report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) released. The report, Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2021, warned that the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening Asia and the Pacific's progress toward critical targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The report said the pandemic, which ravaged the world early last year, "has magnified long-standing social and economic inequities experienced by millions living below or near the poverty line."

As the socioeconomic impacts continue to unfold, the report said, "people already struggling to make ends meet at risk of tipping over into a life of poverty."

South Korea reported 1,509 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Monday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 239,287.

The daily caseload was up from 1,418 in the prior day, hovering above 1,000 for 49 straight days. The daily average tally for the past week was 1,777. The recent resurgence was attributable to cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Of the new cases, 429 were Seoul residents. The number of newly infected people residing in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 469 and 62. The virus spread also raged in the non-metropolitan region. The number of new infections in the noncapital areas was 510, or 34.7 percent of the total local transmission. Thirty-nine cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 13,232.

Six deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 2,228. The total fatality rate stood at 0.93 percent.

A total of 1,592 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 209,193. The total recovery rate was 87.42 percent.

Since the mass vaccination was launched on Feb. 26, the country has administered COVID-19 vaccines to a total of 26,300,189 people with 12,283,734 fully vaccinated. Daily COVID-19 infections in Germany continued to rise as 3,668 new cases were registered within one day, 1,542 more than one week ago, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced.

The country's sevenday incidence rate, which already climbed above 50 over the weekend, went up to 56.4 per 100,000 people on Monday, according to RKI, the federal government agency for disease control and prevention.

A week ago, the sevenday coronavirus case rate was still 36.2. Health Minister Jens Spahn told German public television broadcasters ARD and ZDF on Monday that it is "outdated" to impose stricter COVID-19 measures on the basis of an incidence of 50 or higher.

Hospitalization figures should become the new reference before the national elections in September, he said.

On Monday, 87 new hospitalized COVID-19 cases were reported in German hospitals, meaning that the seven-day incidence rate of hospitalized cases in the country stood at 1.28 cases per 100,000 residents, the RKI data showed.