There are almost 29 million COVID-19 infections worldwide. That reflects a record one-day increase of 307,930 cases, the World Health Organization reported Sunday.
The previous one-day new-case record was 306,857 on September 6, according to the WHO. The one-day record for deaths was 12,430 on April 17.
The WHO says India, the United States and Brazil, the three countries that lead the world in infections, also showed the biggest increases in cases. Deaths increased by more than 5,500 to a total of more than 917,000 worldwide.
India reported 94,372 new cases, the United States reported 45,523 and Brazil reported 43,718 Sunday. New cases are down 44% in the U.S. from a peak of more than 77,000 new cases reported on July 16.
The U.S. and India each reported more than 1,000 new deaths and Brazil reported 874 in the past 24 hours.
The United States remains the country with the most COVID-19 infections, with more than 6.5 million.
India has eclipsed Brazil to take over the second spot with 4.7 million cases. Infections in India’s largest state, Maharashtra, home to financial capital Mumbai, topped 1 million Saturday, stifling the country’s attempts to reinvigorate its economy.
People pack the Ipanema beach amid the new coronavirus pandemic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept.6, 2020.
Brazil has 4.3 million cases.
An article in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that universal face mask wearing “might help reduce the severity of disease and ensure that a greater proportion of new infections are asymptomatic.”
If that premise is correct, the article suggested, face mask wearing could become a form of inoculation “that would generate immunity and thereby slow the spread of the virus” during the global wait for the development of a vaccine.
The daily number of new coronavirus cases reached an all-time high of 1,007 Saturday in the United Arab Emirates, surpassing levels during a May peak. Authorities warned residents last week to comply with preventive measures when daily infections jumped fivefold over a month ago.
On the Greek Islands of Lesbos Saturday, asylum seekers peacefully protested the construction of a replacement camp after successive fires this week destroyed the overcrowded Maria camp, forcing them sleep in the open for a fourth consecutive night.
The protesters were demanding to leave the island after the camp, built to accommodate 2,750 people, became so overcrowded that the fires left more than 12,000 in need of emergency shelter. Officials said the fires were deliberately set by some camp residents angered about the imposition of new lockdown measures after 35 people tested positive for COVID-19.
The British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has resumed trials of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine after getting permission from safety monitors, the company announced Saturday.
“Clinical trials for the AstraZeneca Oxford coronavirus vaccine, AZD1222, have resumed in the UK following confirmation by the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority that it was safe to do so,” the company said in a statement.
The pharmaceutical company paused the trials Tuesday because a volunteer participant became ill after receiving the experimental drug. The company issued a statement that day saying the pause in testing was a “routine action, which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials.”
AstraZeneca’s drug is one of nine vaccine candidates in late stage Phase 3 human trials around the world.
The company began enrolling 30,000 volunteers August 31, and the vaccine was being tested in smaller groups in Brazil and in other South American countries before the trials were suspended.