Chennai: Covid-19 cases are once again rising in many parts of the world, amid fears of a third wave.
Amid concerns of a rise in the trajectory of fresh infections, India recorded 44,643 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, taking the overall case tally to 31.86 million cases. The death toll rose by 464, taking total fatalities to 4,26,754.
Kerala logged 30,000 cases for second consecutive day. As far as the US is concerned, Washington state health officials say the number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients is doubling every 18 to 19 days in the state.
Dr Umair Shah is the state secretary of health and said Wednesday that the surge driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus has stressed, stretched and strained hospital resources across the state.
One hospital official said hospitals throughout the state are facing their highest levels of occupancy ever, and the impact has been especially hard on regional and rural hospitals where there are no critical care beds left.
According to the state Department of Health, 1,346 people were hospitalised with Covid-19 on Tuesday. There have been more than 488,000 confirmed coronavirus infections in Washington state during the pandemic, and 6,448 deaths related to Covid-19.
Meanwhile, New Zealand has reported 68 new community cases of the coronavirus, the largest daily increase since April of last year as an outbreak of the delta variant continues to grow.
The government put the nation into a strict lockdown last week as it tries to stamp out the outbreak, which has grown to a total of 277 infections.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Thursday that she is confident the lockdown is working and new cases will soon begin to drop.
Also on Thursday, national carrier Air New Zealand reported an annual loss of 440 million New Zealand dollars, or about 306 million US, after revenue dropped nearly 50% due to the pandemic-induced plunge in international travel.