India reports 67,708 infections; China tests 4.2M

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday alone reported 67,708 new Covid- 19 cases and 680 related deaths during the past 24 hours, which has pushed the country’s Covid- 19 tally to 7,307,097 including 111,266 deaths.

The Health Ministry reported 63,509 new cases on Wednesday, raising India’s total to more than 7.2 million, second in the world behind the United States.

The ministry also reported 730 fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 110,586. The country was seeing more than 1,000 deaths per day last month.

According to the Health Ministry, India’s average number of daily cases dropped to 72,576 last week from 92,830 during the week of September 9 to 15, when the virus peaked.

Over the last month, the country has been seeing a trend of declining cases on a week- to- week basis. On Tuesday, India registered 55,342 new cases, its lowest single- day mid- August.

In related news, China said it has carried out more than 4.2 million tests in the northern port city of Qingdao, with no new cases of the coronavirus among the almost 2 million results received.

The city has reported a total of 12 cases, six with symptoms and six without since the new outbreak was first spotted over the weekend at a hospital. China on Wednesday reported 27 new tally since cases, including 13 of local transmission and 14 brought from outside the country.

The local cases included seven that had been shifted to confirmed from asymptomatic. It wasn’t immediately clear whether any of those involved cases were reported in Qingdao. China has reported a total of 4,634 deaths among 85,611 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.