Big surge in virus cases in India and Pakistan

The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating across Latin America, Russia, India and Pakistan while the number of cases are flattening and businesses start to reopen in much of Europe, Asia and the United States.

India saw its biggest single-day spike since the pandemic began, and Pakistan and Russia recorded their highest death tolls. Even so, many governments say they need to shift their focus to saving jobs.

In the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, the unemployment numbers are staggering. The Federal Reserve chairman has estimated that 25 per cent of Americans could be jobless by June, while in China analysts estimate about a third of the urban workforce is unemployed.

The cyclone that battered eastern India’s coastal region has left authorities dealing with both destruction on the ground and the pandemic. The pandemic made evacuations harder since many of the now-crowded cyclone shelters were being used for quarantining virus patients.

Meanwhile, the pandemic is interrupting immunisation against diseases, including measles, polio and cholera that could put the lives of nearly 80 million children under the age of 1 at risk, according to a new analysis from the World Health Organisation and partners. Health officials warned that more than half of 129 countries reported moderate, severe or total suspensions of vaccination services during March and April. —