(TibetanReview.net, Mar23’20) – The total number of people infected by the Covid-19 global pandemic which originated and was unleashed in secrecy from the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 has now infected a total of 337,049 people across the world, killing 15,104 of them while a total of 66,907 have recovered, according to data compiled Mar 23 late evening by channelnewsasia.com.
While China, which had the most number of infections thus far, continued to report negligible numbers of daily increases in infections and deaths, the figures especially of infections are continuing to surge in thousands in Italy, the United States, Spain, Germany, Iran, and France.
In India, the total number of infections has touched 415, including 41 foreign nationals, on Mar 23, with the number of deaths remaining at seven. A total of 24 people had been cured, discharged or had migrated, reported livemint.com Mar 23.
Maharashtra was the worst hit state with 89 confirmed infections. The number of infections in Kerala touched 67. Delhi reported 30 cumulative confirmed infections, Uttar Pradesh 28, Rajasthan 28, Telangana 26, Karnataka 26, Punjab, 21, Haryana 17, Ladakh 13, Gujarat 14, Jammu & Kashmir 4, Tamil Nadu 6, Andhra Pradesh 3, Uttarakhand 3, West Bengal 4 and Odisha 2, according to the livemint.com report. Himachal Pradesh had two cases and Bihar is also known to be hit by the novel coronavirus, including with a death.
India has declared complete lockdown of 75 districts in 22 States and Union Territories hit by the global pandemic till Mar 31. The Centre has asked state governments to take legal action against violators. Those flouting rules may face six months jail or Rs 1,000 fine under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code, reported indianexpress.com Mar 23.
Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Jharkhand, Punjab and Nagaland have declared statewide lockdowns, exempting only essential services. For Jharkhand and Nagaland this is a pre-emptive measure as the states are not hit by the global pandemic.
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The worst hit countries outside mainland China with 250 or more confirmed infections and also deaths in most of the cases included Italy (59,138, 5,476), Spain (33,089, 2,182), US (33,073, 416), Iran (23,049, 1,812), Germany (22,672, 86), France (16,018, 674), South Korea (8,961, 111), Switzerland (7,014, 60), UK (5,683, 281), Netherlands (4,204, 179), Belgium (3,401, 75), Austria (3,244, 16), Norway (2,132, 7), Sweden (1,906, 21), Australia (1,609, 7), Portugal (1,600, 14), Malaysia (1,518, 14), Canada (1,430, 20), Denmark (1,420, 13), Turkey (1,236, 30), Brazil (1,128, 15), Japan (1,055, 37), Czech Republic (1,047, 0), Israel (883, 1), Luxembourg (798, 8), Ireland (785, 3), Thailand (721, 1), Diamond Princess cruise ship (712, 8), Pakistan (646, 3), Chile (632, 1), Indonesia (579, 49), Poland (563, 7), Ecuador (532, 7), Greece (530, 13), Finland (521, 1), Saudi Arabia (511, 0), Qatar (481, 0), Singapore (455, 2), Romania (433, 2), Slovenia (414, 1), Iceland (409, 1), Philippines (396, 33), Russia (367, 1), India (360, 7, since risen to 415 infections), Peru (318, 5), Hong Kong (317, 4), Panama (313, 3), Bahrain (310, 1), Estonia (306, 0), Egypt (294, 8), and Mexico (251, 2).
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In China, the National Health Commission has said Mar 23 that the mainland had 39 confirmed cases, all of them what it called imported ones which totaled 353 as of Mar 22-end. Nine were reported to have died on Mar 22-end.
Mainland China also reported 45 new suspected cases, taking the total of such cases to 136.
Of the mainland’s total confirmed cases of 81,093 as of Mar 22-end, 5,120 were still being treated, 72,703 had been discharged after recovery, and 3,270 had died of the disease, reported the official chinadaily.com.cn Mar 23.
The total of number of severe cases was reported to be 1,749, a decline by 118 over the previous day’s total.
