The pandemic was a long way off, the World Health Organization warned this week, with several nations across the world witnessing a spike in Covid cases yet again. With some South East Asian nations also seeing a surge, India has been prompted to keep the guards up. China is battling with a rise in daily cases driven by the highly infectious ‘stealth Omicron variant’. The country saw its first deaths since January 2021 this week.
Here’s a round-up of the Covid surge across the world in 10 points:
1. Delta and Omicron variants continue to dominate a fresh wave in Asia with China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea witnessing a surge in coronavirus infections.
2. China’s national health authorities reported two Covid-19 deaths, the first recorded rise in death toll since January 2021, as the country battles a surge, reports said. China reported only two Covid deaths for all of 2021, the last of those on Jan 25.
3. Singapore on Saturday reported 10,244 new cases, taking the total tally to 1,007,158, according to news agency ANI. Three deaths were also reported on Saturday, bringing the overall count to 1,194.
