NEW DELHI — India has registered another record daily high in new virus cases as New Delhi emerged as its worst-hit city.
India registered 16,922 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the national total to 473,105. The Health Ministry on Thursday also reported 418 more deaths, taking fatalities up to 14,894. The ministry said the recovery rate was continuing to improve at 56%.
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NEW DELHI — India has registered another record daily high in new virus cases as New Delhi emerged as its worst-hit city.
New Delhi’s government has projected that cases in the capital area alone could expand to more than half a million by late July, and is considering taking over luxury hotels and stadiums to convert into field hospitals.
The ministry said it has ramped up testing to more than 200,000 per day across the country, raising the total number of samples tested so far to nearly 7.3 million.
— New York, Connecticut and New Jersey ask visitors from states with high coronavirus infection rates to quarantine in an announcement made as summer travel would normally swing into high gear.
Follow all of AP's pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
With New Delhi causing a major concern with 70,390 cases, authorities have decided to carry out a house-to-house screening in the capital over the next two weeks, a major exercise covering a population of nearly 22 million.
Workers carry cardboard beds after assembling as they prepare a facility that can accommodate more than ten thousand COVID-19 patients at the Radha Soami Satsang Beas complex, one off the biggest in India, in the Chattarpur area of New Delhi, India, Wednesday, June 24, 2020. New Delhi, which is among India's worst hit three states is emerging a cause of concern for the federal government and is being criticized for its poor contact tracing and a lack of enough hospital beds as India is the fourth hardest-hit country by the pandemic in the world after the U.S., Russia and Brazil. (AP PhotoManish Swarup)
New Delhi’s government has projected that cases in the capital area alone could expand to more than half a million by late July, and is considering taking over luxury hotels and stadiums to convert into field hospitals.
Armed forces personnel are providing medical care and attention to coronavirus patients kept in railroad coaches that have been turned into medical wards at nine locations in the Indian capital.
India's financial capital of Mumbai and manufacturing hub Chennai are also among India's hardest-hit areas.
Workers prepare a facility that can accommodate more than ten thousand COVID-19 patients at the Radha Soami Satsang Beas complex, one off the biggest in India, in the Chattarpur area of New Delhi, India, Wednesday, June 24, 2020. New Delhi, which is among India's worst hit three states is emerging a cause of concern for the federal government and is being criticized for its poor contact tracing and a lack of enough hospital beds as India is the fourth hardest-hit country by the pandemic in the world after the U.S., Russia and Brazil. (AP PhotoManish Swarup)
The ministry said it has ramped up testing to more than 200,000 per day across the country, raising the total number of samples tested so far to nearly 7.3 million.
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
— Infections are climbing rapidly among young Americans, a generational shift that puts them in greater peril than many realize and endangers older people who cross their paths.
Volunteers prepare a facility that can accommodate more than ten thousand COVID-19 patients at the Radha Soami Satsang Beas complex, one of the biggest in India, in the Chattarpur area of New Delhi, India, Wednesday, June 24, 2020. New Delhi, which is among India's worst hit three states is emerging a cause of concern for the federal government and is being criticized for its poor contact tracing and a lack of enough hospital beds as India is the fourth hardest-hit country by the pandemic in the world after the U.S., Russia and Brazil. (AP PhotoManish Swarup)
— New York, Connecticut and New Jersey ask visitors from states with high coronavirus infection rates to quarantine in an announcement made as summer travel would normally swing into high gear.
— Australia’s Qantas airline plans to cut at least 6,000 jobs and keep 15,000 more workers on extended furloughs as it tries to survive the pandemic.
— The return of Major League Baseball in late July will be a 60-game sprint played in empty ballparks under unusual rules.
South Korean soldiers wearing protective gears disinfect as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a train station in Daejeon, South Korea, Thursday, June 25, 2020. (Kim Jun-beomYonhap via AP)
Follow all of AP's pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
The skyscraper-studded city of Dubai has ended its monthslong nightly curfew set over the coronavirus pandemic.
South Korean soldiers wearing protective gears disinfect as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a train station in Daejeon, South Korea, Thursday, June 25, 2020. (Kim Jun-beomYonhap via AP)
The city-state in the United Arab Emirates made the announcement in a tweet from the government’s Dubai Media Office late Wednesday.
It said there would be “free move all day & night” as long as people wore masks and maintained social distancing.
However, the emirate also reportedly shut down all bars and pubs Tuesday after briefly allowing them to reopen, cutting into lucrative alcohol sales. Dubai police, which oversees alcohol sales, and government officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The curfew began in late March and for a while involved a 24-hour lockdown in which people needed police permission to move on the street.
A nighttime curfew in Abu Dhabi similarly lifted, though the sheikhdom remains closed off to other emirates over the pandemic.
HONOLULU — Starting Aug. 1, travelers arriving in Hawaii from out of state may bypass a 14-day quarantine requirement if they test negative for COVID-19.
Since late March, Hawaii has been requiring travelers from outside the islands to stay in their hotel rooms or homes for two weeks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The move has helped keep down disease numbers but has also contributed to the collapse of the tourism industry and sent unemployment soaring.
The plan announced Wednesday is modeled after Alaska’s, which allows travelers to avoid quarantine if they take a test within 72 hours before arrival and test negative. If the test result is not available upon arrival, travelers must stay in quarantine until the result is known.
Gov. David Ige hasn’t yet set a time limit for when the tests will need to be done, but he said 72 hours was reasonable.
“People do need to get back to work, but it must be done in a manner that protects the health of our community,” Ige said at a news conference.
Hawaii the lowest per capita infection rate of any U.S. state. As of Wednesday, the islands have had 835 cases and 17 deaths.
SYDNEY — Australian health workers will go door-to-door testing more than 100,000 residents in a coronavirus hot spot in suburban Melbourne that is threatening to undo the nation’s success in battling the virus.
Victoria state on Thursday reported 33 new cases, the highest daily number in more than two months.
Premier Daniel Andrews says the testing aims to collect samples from half of all residents in 10 suburbs. He says the goal is to test 10,000 people daily over 10 days. The tests are free and Andrews is urging people to see undergoing testing as a civic duty.
More than 1,000 military personnel are helping with the operation, while other states will help process the test results.
Australia has reported more than 7,500 cases of the virus, including 104 deaths.
DAKAR, Senegal — Senegal’s national television says President Macky Sall is going into quarantine after being exposed to someone who tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The report late Wednesday said the 58-year-old Sall tested negative for a virus infection earlier in the day but will still self isolate. The report didn’t identify the person who exposed the president. A month ago Sall’s brother was treated for the virus.
The news comes as concern mounts about COVID-19 in the West African nation, which now has more than 6,000 confirmed cases and 93 deaths. Four of the fatalities were announced Wednesday.
The rise in cases comes after Senegal lifted restrictions on movement between cities and shortened the nightly curfew.
CARSON CITY, Nev. — Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak says the state will begin mandating the use of face-coverings in public places in an effort to stem a rise in coronavirus cases four weeks after casinos, restaurants and other businesses started reopening.
Nevada has reported more than 14,300 coronavirus cases and 494 deaths from COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic.
The governor says Nevada residents must make face coverings “a routine part of our daily life” in order to keep businesses open and people safe.
Nevada joins several states, including California, Washington and North Carolina, in mandating face coverings.
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has reported 28 more coronavirus cases as the country strives to suppress a resurgence of the virus, mostly in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area.
The figures released Thursday by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bring the country’s total to 12,563 cases, with 282 deaths. The agency says 10,974 people have recovered, while 1,307 patients are still in COVID-19 treatment.
South Korea has seen an uptick in infections since easing its strict social distancing rules. But the daily increase hasn’t reached the level of late February and early March, when South Korea saw hundreds of new cases every day.
Most of recent cases have been associated with nightlife establishments, church gatherings, a huge e-commerce warehouse and door-to-door sellers.
BEIJING — China has reported 19 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus amid mass testing in Beijing, where a recent outbreak appears to have been brought under control.
Of the new cases reported Thursday, 13 were in Beijing and one in the neighboring province of Hebei. Officials say the other five were brought by Chinese travelers from outside the country. No new deaths were reported.
China has reported 4,634 deaths among 83,4449 cases since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
This month’s outbreak in Beijing saw 249 people infected, most of them with links to the city’s biggest wholesale market. Since then, 3 million test samples have been taken from 2.43 million people in the city.
NEW YORK — Three Northeast governors are installing restrictions on travelers from states with increasing COVID-19 cases.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced the restrictions, which require travelers from certain states to quarantine for 24 days upon arrival.
The quarantine applies to people coming from states with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents on a seven-day average, or with a 10% or higher positive rate over seven days.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says his state was mistakenly included on the list. Washington’s recent positive test rate was about 6%.