Covid-19 cases touch 700,000 mark


London: The number of coronavirus cases around the world crossed the 700,000 mark near midnight on Monday, with the US comprising over a seventh of them, while the death toll crossed the 33,500 mark, with Italy (10,779) and Spain (6,606) accounting for over half of them, as the Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Centre.

Of the 704,095 total cases, the US led with 132,637 and was followed by Italy with 97, 689 cases, China with 82,122, Spain with 78,799, Germany with 60,659 and Iran with 38,309.

As far the death toll was concerned, China’s Hubei was third with 3,182 deaths, followed by Iran with 2,640, France with 2,606, and the UK with 1,228. US had also reported over 2,000 deaths across the country, the maximum of them in New York City (678).

Meanwhile, 148,824 Covid-19 patients have recovered, with over half (75,582) of them from China, followed by 14,709 in Spain, 13,030 in Italy, 12,391 in Iran and 9,211 in Germany.

Meanwhile, authorities in the Russian capital Moscow have increased restrictions on movement in a bid to contain the coronavirus spread, allowing people to only leave their homes for urgent and limited purposes.

From Monday, Moscow residents will only be allowed to go out for urgent medical help, go to work if they are required to, shop for basic necessities such as food and medicine and throw out household waste, the BBC reported.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said people can walk their pets “no more than 100 metres from their place of residence”.

Russia currently has reported 1,534 cases of Covid-19, out of which eight people have died and 64 have recovered.