Updates on COVID-19 from around the world

India

India reported a record 412,262 new COVID-19 cases last Thursday and a record 3980 daily deaths, as a second wave of infections swamps the health system and spreads from cities into the vast countryside.

With Delhi running short of ambulances, authorities have turned some of the city’s ubiquitous three-wheeled autorickshaws into makeshift ambulances to ferry COVID-19 patients.

“For every one body that I perform last rites for, there are a dozen more waiting,” one undertaker said.

Japan

Japan’s capital will seek to extend until May 31 its state of emergency aimed at curbing infections, Governor Yuriko Koike said on Thursday, a move that could spark more questions about its ability to host the Olympics.

Japan had hoped a “short and powerful” emergency would contain a fourth wave just under three months before Tokyo is set to host the Olympic Games from July 23.

While the measure now running from April 25 until Tuesday has not damped a surge of new infections, continuing it until May 31 leaves a margin of less than two months before the Games, already postponed by a year.

United States

With 47,166 daily new infections reported on average, the United States is now 19 percent below a January 7 peak.

The Governors of two more US states said on Thursday they were lifting most restrictions that were put in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus after sharp drops in infection rates and deaths. Both Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam unveiled plans for easing or even completely erasing limits.

Italy

Italy reported 258 coronavirus-related deaths last Thursday against 267 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 11,807 from 10,585.

Netherlands

Dutch researchers have trained bees, which have an unusually keen sense of smell, to identify samples infected with COVID-19, a finding they said could cut waiting times for test results to just seconds.

France

The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units (ICU) in France fell by 171 to 5231, the biggest one-day drop in 12 months, health ministry data showed last Thursday, as the government started unwinding the country’s third lockdown.

French health authorities reported 21,712 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, taking the total to 5.73 million, the world’s fourth-highest. The COVID-19 death toll increased by 219 to 105,850, the eighth-highest globally.