COVID-19: South Africa Reports Highest Daily Rise In Cases

• Nigeria seizes British plane
• Death tolls fall in UK, Spain, Italy
• Global infections go pass 4.7m 

South Africa has reported 1,160 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily number since the first case was recorded in March, AFP reports on Sunday.

“As of today, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa is 15,515, with 1,160 new cases identified in the last 24 hour cycle of testing,” the country’s Health Ministry said in a statement.

The Western Cape province, popular with tourists, accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the national numbers and the numbers of deaths rose by three to 263 from Saturday.

A billboard is installed on an apartment building encouraging people to wear face masks in Cape Town, South Africa, Saturday, May 16, 2020, marking day 51 of a strict government lockdown in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Africa’s most industrialised economy has the highest numbers of infections in Africa, followed by Egypt, which has so far recorded 11,719 COVID-19 cases, including 612 deaths.

The country has been under lockdown since March 27, 2020 and has embarked on an aggressive mass testing strategy with 460,873 tested so far.

Global Infections Go Pass 4.7m

There are 4,702,603 confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide. Of theses numbers, at least, 314,476 people have died over the course of the pandemic so far.

Death Tolls Drop In UK, Spain, Italy

In a possible glimmer of hope, Sunday has seen lower coronavirus death tolls reported in the UK, Spain and Italy.

The UK’s daily coronavirus death toll was the lowest since lockdown began, with 170 deaths recorded.

This should be taken with a pinch of salt: due to hospital reporting delays, the numbers reported on Sundays and Mondays tend to be lower than other days.

Meanwhile, Spain has recorded its lowest single-day death toll in two months. Italy on Sunday recorded its lowest daily toll, 145, since lockdown was declared. There were 153 deaths registered during the previous 24 hour period.

India has extended a nearly two-month-old lockdown by another two weeks with Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and other key regions still fighting to control the rising curve of coronavirus infections.

The Health Ministry on Sunday reported a record jump of nearly 5,000 cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the number of confirmed cases to 90,927, with 2,872 deaths.

Nigeria Seizes British Plane Flouting Travel Ban

Nigeria has seized a British plane for defying a travel ban imposed as part of measures to curb the spread of coronavirus pandemic, the Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika said Sunday.

Flair Aviation, the airline involved, was authorised to conduct humanitarian flights but was caught operating commercial flights, Sirika said on his Twitter account.

Qatar makes masks mandatory on pain of prison. Qatar has begun enforcing the world’s toughest penalties of up to three years’ in prison for failing to wear masks in public, in a country with one of the highest coronavirus infection rates.

More than 32,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the tiny Gulf country – 1.2 percent of the 2.75 million population – although just 15 people have died.

Only the micro-states of San Marino and the Vatican have had higher per-capita infection rates, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Italy’s shops, restaurants and hair salons have been preparing to reopen on Monday, as the government further eases the lockdown.

Businesses are being allowed to gradually go back to work as long they can enforce tight sanitary protocols and keep people at least one metre apart. Economic recovery is expected to be difficult, particularly without tourists.

Lebanon will gradually reopen its economy beginning on Monday following a four-day shutdown imposed after a rise in coronavirus cases threatened a second wave of the outbreak.

The country’s plan to ease restrictions on business was paused last week after a rise in new cases. The country of about 6 million people has recorded 911 infections and 26 deaths.

Republic of Benin is staging local elections, minus key opposition parties, with authorities pushing ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic.

The West African nation of 11 million this week lifted a series of restrictions aimed at halting the spread of the virus, which has caused 339 confirmed infections and two deaths in the country.

Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil have surpassed the total in Italy, with the country announcing nearly 15,000 new infections on Saturday.

This takes Brazil’s total to more than 230,000, the fourth-largest confirmed caseload after the US, Russia and the UK.

The city of Wuhan conducted 222,675 nucleic acid tests on 16 May, the local Health authority said, nearly doubling from a day earlier. Wuhan kicked off a campaign on 14 May to look for asymptomatic carriers after confirming last weekend its first cluster of COVID-19 infections since its release from lockdown on 8 April.

Quebec is considering making masks mandatory, after banning the veil. The Canadian province at the centre of the country’s outbreak is is currently “strongly recommending” that citizens wear masks, but has not made the measure mandatory.

Quebec’s public health director stressed “You need to have a good argument for infringing on individual rights for the sake of a collective right.”

The growth of new coronavirus cases in Russia is stabilising, a top health official has said, as the daily tally fell under 10,000 for the third time this week.

The country has the world’s second highest number of infections at 281,752, topped only by the United States.

Madagascar has reported the first death of a patient suffering from the coronavirus, nearly two months after the virus was first detected in the country.

The victim was a 57-year-old man with underlying conditions. Madagascar has reported 30 confirmed cases so far.