Over a 24-hour period, the world saw nearly 260,000 new coronavirus cases — a new record. Deaths were also on the rise, with 7,360 …
Over a 24-hour period, the world saw nearly 260,000 new coronavirus cases — a new record. Deaths were also on the rise, with 7,360 new fatalities reported Saturday in the highest one-day increase since May.
The World Health Organization announced the numbers Saturday. The United States, Brazil, India and South Africa were responsible for more than 165,000 of the cases. The WHO said it included more than 11,000 new cases from Kyrgyzstan on Saturday because of a change in reporting criteria.
Globally, nearly 600,000 people have been killed by the virus, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Almost a quarter of the world’s deaths have occurred in the U. S.
On the testing front, the Food and Drug Administration gave emergency approval Saturday to Quest Diagnostics for using its test for active COVID-19 infections using «pooled» samples. Specimens of up to four people can be tested together; if the results come back negative, health officials will know that none of those tested has the virus. A positive result would then be followed up by individual testing of the samples.
