Mar 21, 2020 07:23 PM

Coronavirus Live Updates (Saturday): Global Rise in New Cases Breaks Another Record; Australia’s Caseload Reaches Grim Milestone

Saturday, March 21, 6 p.m.

A record number of new Covid-19 cases were confirmed around the world in a single day Friday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. A total of 29,500 cases were added globally, outstripping the record set Thursday, when 27,800 new cases were logged.

Those daily figures are likely to remain high as the pandemic tightens its grip and countries ramp up testing. On Saturday, Australia saw its caseload move into four figures, with the country’s Department of Health confirming in an email to Caixin Global that it had recorded 1,081 infections as of 3 p.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time, up from 874 at 6:30 a.m. the same day.

Australian health officials have lamented what they see as the country’s halfhearted embrace of social distancing, a strategy that aims to reduce the spread of infection by limiting human contact. On Saturday, authorities in Sydney closed the city’s iconic Bondi Beach and cleared other popular seaside spots after large crowds gathered there in defiance of a ban on outdoor gatherings that exceed 500 people, the Guardian reported.

Saturday also saw the number of cases move beyond 1,000 in Japan (link in Japanese) and Canada.

Singapore has recorded its first two coronavirus-related deaths, the country’s health ministry said Saturday. Both patients, a 75-year-old Singaporean woman and a 64-year-old Indonesian man, had a medical history of pneumonia and underlying health complaints.

Elsewhere on Saturday, there were signs that more and more countries are imposing restrictions on movement in a bid to staunch the spread of disease. Colombia, a country of 49 million that has so far confirmed 128 Covid-19 cases, announced a nationwide quarantine (link in Spanish) that will take effect Tuesday night.

The Middle Eastern nation of Jordan, where there have been 85 infections, imposed a mandatory curfew on its 9.7 million citizens. And the prime minister of South Korea, which has logged some 8,600 cases, called for a 15-day suspension of religious, sports, and entertainment venues and warned people not to gather in large groups, according to the country’s Yonhap News Agency.

Compiled by Matthew Walsh

Saturday, March 21, 10 a.m.

A quarter of a million people worldwide have now been infected with Covid-19, according to data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. More than 11,000 people have died from the disease worldwide, while around 88,000 patients have recovered.

In the United States, a long-anticipated, much-feared surge in Covid-19 cases appears to have begun in the state of New York. On Friday, as the number of diagnoses there spiked above 8,500, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order suspending all nonessential business. The New York Times reported that hospitals in the eponymous city of 8.6 million people were running critically short of medical supplies like surgical masks and ventilators.

New York’s dwindling medical supplies are reflected nationwide. A lack of testing swabs, masks, surgical gowns, and hand sanitizer across the U.S. is linked to a collapse in imports that mostly come from China, the Associated Press reported Friday, citing trade data.

Global stocks continued to fall Friday as the pandemic continued to spread. In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4.5% Friday, sinking below its level when U.S. President Donald Trump took office. The U.S. Senate is closing in on a massive $1 trillion economic stabilization deal that will seek to broaden unemployment benefits for virus-affected workers and prop up local and state governments’ ailing tax revenues, The New York Times reported.

For the third straight day, China logged no new cases in Hubei, the province at the center of the country’s epidemic. There were 41 new cases on the Chinese mainland Friday, all of which were “imported” from overseas, according to the latest figures from the National Health Commission (NHC).

The NHC reported seven new deaths on the mainland — all of which occurred in Hubei — 36 new suspected cases, and 590 new recoveries. Since December, the mainland has logged more than 81,000 cases and over 3,200 deaths.

However, other parts of East Asia saw sharp rises in new cases. Hong Kong posted a single-day record of 48 new diagnoses, most of which were imported, bringing the city’s total caseload to 256. Taiwan also saw a record daily increase as 27 new infections brought its total to 135. The island also reported its second coronavirus-related death.

Elsewhere, South Korea, which has been lauded for its response to its outbreak, recorded 147 new cases (link in Korean) Friday, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The peninsular nation has seen two three-figure bumps in new cases since Thursday, after going five consecutive days with less than 100 new infections. Singapore confirmed 40 new cases, 30 of which were imported.

Meanwhile, the total number of cases in Mexico rose from 168 to 203 overnight, according to the country’s health ministry (link in Spanish). The 130 million-strong nation’s government has drawn criticism for playing down the risks of the new coronavirus.

Compiled by Matthew Walsh

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