India overtakes China in number of coronavirus cases

India’s confirmed coronavirus cases have surpassed China’s, with the Health Ministry on Saturday reporting a spike to 85,940 infections and 2,752 deaths.

China has reported 82,941 confirmed case and 4,633 deaths since the virus was first detected late last year in the central city of Wuhan.

The worst-hit India’s states are Maharashtra with 29,100 coronavirus cases, Tamil Nadu with 10,108, Gujarat with 9,931 and New Delhi with 8,895.

In the last 24 hours, India had confirmed 3,970 new cases and 103 fatalities.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is due to announce a decision this weekend on whether to extend the 54-day-old lockdown.

Early this month, the government started gradually easing the restrictions to resume economic activity by allowing neighborhood shops to reopen and manufacturing and farming to resume.

It also has resumed limited train services across the country to help stranded migrant workers, students and tourists.

Meanwhile, in another news, South Korean officials have so far confirmed 162 coronavirus cases linked to club goers in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, and are expressing cautious hope that infections are beginning to wane.

Health Ministry official Son Young-rae said Saturday that the country may have ducked a major surge in transmissions in a region where half of its 51 million people live.

Son noted that the daily increase in infections has been within 30 over the past few days despite a jump in tests. Son said 46,000 people have so far been tested following a slew of infections linked to clubs and other nightspots in Seoul’s Itaewon entertainment district.

“It’s notable there were no new transmissions in churches, call centres, and gyms where virus carriers went to,” said Son.

Authorities have expanded anonymous testing after some media described the clubs linked to infections as catering to sexual minorities, which raised concern that people may be discouraged from coming forward in fear of homophobic backlash.