Category:

Disaster & Management

Global coronavirus cases to soon surpass 30 million: Reuters tally

The official number of global coronavirus cases is now more than five times the number of severe influenza illnesses recorded annually, according to World Health Organization data.

Around the world, there have been almost 1 million deaths, considered a lagging indicator given the two-week incubation period of the virus. That has well exceeded the upper range of 290,000 to 650,000 annual deaths linked to influenza.

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COVID-19 tally in India breaches 48-lakh mark; death toll climbs 79,722

The COVID-19 case fatality rate due to the coronavirus infection has further dropped to 1.64 per cent.

There are 9,86,598 active cases of COVID-19 in the country, while 37,80,107 people have recovered, the data stated.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and it went past 40 lakh on September 5.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 5,72,39,428 samples have been tested up to September 13 with 9,78,500 samples being tested on Sunday.

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COVID-19: 58% of recovered cases coming from five states

India’s COVID-19 tally of cases mounted to 47,54,356 with 94,372 new infections being reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 78,586 with 1,114 people succumbing to the infection in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

1,114 COVID-19 fatalities have been registered in a span of 24 hours. Maharashtra has reported the maximum number of 391 deaths followed by Karnataka with 94 deaths, whereas Tamil Nadu has reported 76 deaths.

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Restaurant dining linked to COVID-19; severe illness less common with GI symptoms

“Masks cannot be effectively worn while eating and drinking, whereas shopping and numerous other indoor activities do not preclude mask use,” researchers said in the report on Friday in the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. “Eating and drinking on-site at locations that offer such options might be important risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection,” they added.

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Vaccine likely in a few months, but life won’t return to normal until end of 2021:Dr. Fauci

“If you’re talking about getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to Covid, it’s going to be well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021,” he added.

Nearly 30 U.S. states are reporting downward trends in Covid-19 cases, but the pandemic will likely worsen again, said Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert.

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Puri launches framework for cities to inculcate climate-sensitive approach to urban planning

At a virtual event, after launching ”Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework 2.0”, Puri said, “It is estimated that climate change will impact the Indian GDP by 2-6 per cent on an annual basis. 

“This means that our future development goals and investments will also be severely affected if we do not address climate risks now.”

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COVID-19 “not a capital event”, 3% decline in global reinsurance capital in the first half of 2020: Willis Re

Total capital dedicated to the global reinsurance industry was USD 587 billion at 30 June 2020, combined ratio worsened from 94.9% in the first half of 2019 to 104.1%, due to COVID-19 losses which added 11.1 percentage points to combined ratios on average. However, on an underlying basis i.e. normalising COVID-19 and catastrophe losses and excluding prior year reserve development, the combined ratio improved from 100.5% to 98.6%.
James Kent, Global CEO, Willis Re, said: “This half-year analysis shows a reinsurance market understandably in a state of change. While reinsurers have so far resiliently shouldered the combined effects of COVID-19 losses and investment market volatility, underlying profitability remains challenging. Uncertainty therefore remains, particularly over the potential impact of COVID-19 on long-tail lines, which is driving reinsurers to deliver additional improvement in underwriting returns. We expect to see further reinsurance market discipline as well as continued differentiation between regions and clients based on past performance and underlying risk.”

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