Record numbers of COVID-19 cases have been recorded in India and Sweden, while Europe faces a potential surge of infections caused by mass protests, politicians and European Union officials and experts have warned.
India has reported a record of nearly 10,000 new coronavirus cases, bringing its tally to 286,579 confirmed cases, the fifth highest in the world, with 8102 deaths, including 357 in the past 24 hours.
Health services in the worst-hit cities of Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai have been swamped by the rising infections.
The spike comes as the government moves ahead with the reopening of restaurants, shopping centres and places of worship. Subways, hotels and schools remain closed.
The actual infection numbers are thought to be higher because of limited testing.
Sweden announced its highest daily tally of infections with 1474 new cases, which is due to a long-delayed surge in testing say authorities.
Thursday's figure took the total number of infections to 48,300 - though the Public Health Agency said the number of deaths was slowing, reports AAP.
The rise in new cases "is a direct consequence of increasing testing in the regions and catching cases with mild symptoms," agency head of microbiology Karin Tegmark-Wisell, told a news conference.
Staying in Europe, and European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Jozef Kesecioglu told a conference he's concerned there could be a surge of infections on the back of demonstrations against racism.
"If you advise everybody to keep one and half metre from each other, and everybody just stands next to each other, holding each other, then I don't have a good feeling about that," he said.
UK health minister Matt Hancock said people should not attend large gatherings of more than six people, including demonstrations.
"I understand that people want to show their passion for a cause that they care deeply about. But this is a virus that thrives on social contact, regardless of what your cause may be," he said.
Jumping across the ocean, and America passed two million COVID-19 cases this week, with 113,561 deaths.
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Kim Chappell
As Senior Producer - Digital for ACM's regional titles I assist newsrooms in digital best practice. Before this role, I was the digital journalist with ACM's national team and prior to that, the digital specialist with ACM's Agricultural division. I started as a general rounds journalist with The Land in 2006, moving up to hold the title of chief of staff before switching to digital reporting in 2015.
As Senior Producer - Digital for ACM's regional titles I assist newsrooms in digital best practice. Before this role, I was the digital journalist with ACM's national team and prior to that, the digital specialist with ACM's Agricultural division. I started as a general rounds journalist with The Land in 2006, moving up to hold the title of chief of staff before switching to digital reporting in 2015.
