The death toll from the emerging coronavirus (Covid-19) in India has risen to 50,000, while South Korea today warned against imposing tougher restrictions to combat the worst outbreak in months. Meanwhile, Lebanon announced a sharp increase in the number of injured.
And the health authorities in India revealed 900 new deaths during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 50 thousand, while 2.6 million injuries were announced.
In terms of deaths, India last week overtook Britain, which recorded the fourth-highest death toll from the epidemic, after the United States, Brazil and Mexico.
In South Korea, health authorities warned of tougher restrictions to combat the virus with the emergence of new foci, including one linked to a church, more than 300 of its congregants were infected, but hundreds of others are reluctant to undergo examination.
The outbreak associated with the Sarang Gil Church in Seoul is the largest in the country in nearly six months, and led to tightening of physical distancing rules on Sunday.
South Korea's handling of the epidemic was one of the global success stories in containing the virus, but it has been struggling for some time with increases in infections.
In Lebanon, the Minister of Health in the caretaker government said that general isolation measures should be imposed for a period of two weeks, after a sharp increase in injuries.
Minister Hamad Hassan told Voice of Lebanon Radio, "Today we announce the state of the alarm, and we need a courageous decision to close for two weeks."
On Sunday, Lebanon recorded 439 new cases of the virus, in a record jump. The country is still suffering after the huge explosion that rocked the Beirut port at the beginning of this month.
On the other side of the world, official data showed that the virus continues to spread in many Latin American countries, especially in Colombia.
The Colombia Ministry of Health announced 287 deaths during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths resulting from the epidemic to 15,097 cases out of 468,332 injuries recorded as of Sunday.
Colombia, with a population of 50 million, is the fourth country in Latin America in terms of numbers of deaths and injuries.
In Lima, the Ministry of Health announced that Peru had recorded more than 10 thousand injuries within 24 hours, a new record for the second consecutive day.
For its part, Ecuador, one of the countries most affected by the epidemic in Latin America, with more than a hundred thousand infections, announced its intention to manufacture anti-virus vaccines.
In Bolivia, the number of injuries exceeded 100,000 cases yesterday, Sunday, according to the Ministry of Health, which expected the outbreak to reach its peak there in September.
It is noteworthy that the Latin America and the Caribbean region is one of the regions in the world most affected by the virus, with more than six million infections.
In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today that she has decided to postpone the elections scheduled for September 19 to October 17 due to the new wave of the virus outbreak and the obstruction it caused to the electoral campaign.
In Europe, France recorded yesterday, for the second day in a row, more than 3,300 new infections within 24 hours, in a daily toll slightly less than that recorded on Saturday (3110) and was the highest ever since May, noting that the pandemic has reaped to this day in France 30,410 lives.
In a new development that may raise hope in a race to produce a new vaccine, Chinese media reported that the "Cansino Biology" company had obtained approval from Beijing for a patent for a new vaccine.
Saudi Arabia had said this month that it planned to start the third phase of clinical trials of the "Canseno" vaccine. The company said it was also in talks with Russia, Brazil and Chile to start the third phase of trials in those countries.