India Sees Biggest 24-Hour Spike Of 17,296 Virus Cases

UAE conducts 49,000 COVID-19 tests, reports 410 new cases and 2 deaths; United States, Europe battle a resurgence of coronavirus cases; White House seeks to scrap ‘Obamacare.’

Cardboard beds installed inside the campus hall of the spiritual organisation, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, which is being converted into a 10,000-bed COVID-19 care centre in New Delhi.

India neared half a million confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday with its biggest 24-hour spike of 17,296 new infections, prompting a delay in resumption of regular train services of more than a month.

The new cases took India’s total to 490,401. The Health Ministry also reported 407 more deaths in the previous 24 hours, taking its total fatalities to 15,301.

The ministry said the recovery rate was continuing to improve at 57.43%. Also, deaths per 100,000 stood at 1.86 against the world average of 6.24 per 100,000, it said.

The actual numbers of infections and deaths from COVID-19, like elsewhere in the world, are thought to be far higher due to a number of reasons including limited testing.

Indian Railways was due to resume regular train service on June 30 but said on Thursday that it wouldn’t fully resume until Aug. 12.

Domestic flights have resumed on selected routes, but a government decision on restarting international flights is expected next month.