Global coronavirus death toll nears 750,000

THE number of coronavirus deaths worldwide was approaching 750,000 today as a number of countries reported rises in infections.

The world was nearing the sombre milestone eight months after the first coronavirus cases were reported.

Some 749,358 known coronavirus deaths have already been recorded globally, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The number of global cases passed 20 million earlier this week.

India reported another record daily rise in coronavirus infections today, with 66,999 new cases. The death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 47,000. The country, with the world’s biggest case load behind the United States and Brazil, has reported a jump of 50,000 cases or more for 15 straight days.

New Zealand’ s prime minister Jacinda Ardern warned the outbreak in the country’s largest city Auckland will “get worse before it gets better”, as it grew to 17 cases. Authorities were still searching for the source of the infections, which have come after the nation marked more than 100 days without any local transmissions.

Ukraine recorded a record daily jump of 1,592 coronavirus cases. More than 2,500 new coronavirus cases were registered in France in 24 hours in the sharpest rise since May as concerns continued over whether it would be added to the UK’s quarantine list.

Turkey is to delay the reopening of schools by almost a month until late September, as daily coronavirus cases remain above 1,000. Italy ordered travellers arriving from Croatia, Greece, Malta and Spain to be tested for Covid-19 and added Colombia to a list of countries under a complete travel ban.