Coronavirus live updates: Nearly 2 million cases in August, India sets a global Covid record

BJD MLA Byomakesh Ray on Monday tested positive for COVID-19, raising the number of lawmakers infected with coronavirus in Odisha to 13. Taking to Facebook, the Chandbali MLA expressed regret for not being able to serve the flood-hit people of his constituency.

The Phase I of the trial is still continuing as we are planning for the start of the Phase II trial shortly," Dr E Venkata Rao, principal investigator of the trial at Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, faculty of medical sciences, said.

South Korea has counted its 18th straight day of triple-digit daily jumps in coronavirus cases as its health minister warned about an increase in transmissions gone untraced, and infections among senior citizens. The 248 new cases reported by the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Monday brought the national caseload to 19,947, including 324 deaths.

Mexico’s health ministry on Sunday reported 4,129 new confirmed novel coronavirus infections and 339 additional fatalities, bringing the total number to 595,841 cases and 64,158 deaths.

The United States neared six million coronavirus cases on Sunday, nearly a quarter of the planet's total, as nations around the world battle to contain the raging pandemic. Global coronavirus infections soared past 25 million, as countries tightened restrictions to halt the health crisis that has upended life for most of humanity. A million additional cases have been detected globally roughly every four days since mid-July, according to an AFP tally, with India on Sunday setting the record for the highest single-day rise in cases with 78,761.

A million additional cases have been detected globally roughly every four days since mid-July.

With more than 76,000 fresh cases being registered daily for five consecutive days, the growth rate this week at 13.1% was almost three times the 4.7% growth registered the previous week. This was 5.9% in the preceding week and 10.9% in the first week of the month (August 3-9).