(TibetanReview.net, Mar21’20) – As the juggernaut of the Covid-19 global pandemic, which broke out in central Chinese city of Wuhan in Nov 2019, continues its relentless onslaught, the number of people infected by the disease worldwide has touched 269,957 as of Mar 21, 2020 at 3:28pm, according to data compiled by chamnnelnewsasias.com. Of these, 11,260 had died while a total of 66,907 had recovered. China accounts for most of the infections at 81,008 while Italy had the highest fatality with 4,032 deaths thus far.
In India, the number of positive cases rose to 271 on Mar 21, from 236 a day earlier, noted an indianexpress.com report Mar 21. In an attempt to curb the spread of the pandemic infection, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Mar 19 called for a ‘Janata curfew’ to be observed on Mar 22 (Sunday), asking people to not step out of homes between 7 am and 9 pm. In keeping with it, the Indian Railways announced Mar 20 that it would stop its services across the country during the Janata Curfew period.
The infection reached the district of Kangra for the first time with two confirmed cases, an import one each from Singapore and Dubai through local residents who are a 32-year-old man and a 63-year-old woman. Kangra is the district in which Dharamshala, the nerve centre of the Tibetan exile community, is situated. No Tibetan is known to be infected thus far. The two were confirmed in a preliminary testing done at the district’s Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College Hospital at Tanda. These are also the first reported cases in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
India has so far reported four deaths from the global pandemic: one each in Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra.
The pandemic had hit 23 states and union territories of India. Of them, Maharashtra had 63 infections, followed by Kerala at 40 cases. Delhi had 26 cases, Uttar Pradesh 24, Rajasthan 23, Telangana 19, Haryana 17, Karnataka 16, Ladakh 13, Gujarat 7, and Jammu & Kashmir four. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Uttarakhand had three confirmed infections each while Odisha has two. Puducherry, Chhattisgarh and Chandigarh has one each.
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For Italy, the worst affected country outside China, it was another record number of deaths which touched 4,032 against the previous day’s total of 3,405. The total of Confirmed infections in the country touched 47,021 compared to the previous day’s total of 41,035. So far 1,045 had recovered.
Spain became the second worsted affected country outside China in terms of the number of infections which touched 19,980 against the previous day’s total of 17,147. The country’s total death from the pandemic reached 1,002 compared to the previous day’s total of 767. A total of 183 had recovered.
Iran’s total of infections from the global pandemic touched 19,644 as against the previous day’s total of 18,407. The country had the third most number of deaths which totaled 1,433 as against the previous day’s total of 1,284 deaths. S total of 2,959 were reported to have recovered.
The United States became the fourth most affected country outside China with a total of 19,285 infections as against the previous day’s total of 10,427, and 249 deaths, compared to the previous day’s total of 150 deaths. The number of those who had recovered was put at eight.
Germany reported a sharp increase in the total number of infections thus far at 17,742, with 48 deaths, compared to the previous day’s totals of 10,999 and 44 respectively. The number of those who had recovered was reported to be 25.
France reported totals of 12,612 infections and 450 deaths compared to the previous day’s totals of 10,995 and 372 respectively.
And South Korea reported totals of 8,799 infections and 102 deaths compared to the previous day’s totals of 8,652 and 94 respectively. A total of 288 were reported to have recovered.
Other badly affected countries with 500 or more infections and deaths were Switzerland (4,176, 43), the United Kingdom (4,014, 178), the Netherlands (2994,, 106), Austria (2,388, 6), Belgium (2,257, 37), Norway (1,781, 7), Sweden (1,623, 16), Denmark (1,225, 6), Malaysia (1,183, 6), Canada (1,044, 12),Portugal (1.020, 6), Japan, (1,016, 35), Brazil (904, 11), Australia (874,7), the Diamond Princess cruise ship (712, 7-unchanged), Ireland (683, 3), Israel (677, 1), Turkey (670, 9), and Pakistan (501, 3).
Other countries with 100 or more infections with deaths were Luxembourg, Greece, Indonesia, Ecuador, Poland Thailand, Iceland, Singapore, Slovenia, Philippines, Bahrain, Egypt, Hong Kong, Russia, India, Peru, Mexico, Panama, Iraq, Lebanon, Argentina, San Marino, UAE, Taiwan, Bulgaria, Costa Croatia, and Latvia.
Countries and regions with 100 or more confirmed infections, but no death, were Czech Republic (833), Qatar (470), Finland (450), Chile (434), Saudi Arabia (344), Romania (308), Estonia (283), South Africa (202), Kuwait (159), Colombia (158), Slovakia (137), Armenia (122), Serbia (118), and Latvia (111).
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In China, the National Health Commission said Mar 21 that the mainland had no domestically infected new confirmed case for the third successive day but 41 imported ones and seven deaths on Mar 20 end. It was stated to have brought the total of imported confirmed cases to 269.
Mainland China also reported 36 new suspected cases, taking the total of such cases to 106.
Of the mainland’s total confirmed cases of 81,008 as of Mar 20 end, 6,013 were still being treated, 71,740 had been discharged after recovery, and 3,255 had died of the disease, reported the official chinadaily.com.cn Mar 21.
The total of number of severe cases was reported to be 1,963, a decline by 173 over the previous day’s total.
