Texas becomes first US state to surpass 1 mn cases

Houston, November 9

Texas has become the first US state to cross over a million Covid cases as President-elect Joe Biden is gearing up to battle the deadly virus which has infected more than 9.8 million people in the country.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Texas is one of the 31 states that has hit a record number of coronavirus cases this week. In Harris County, there are more than 167,000 cases and more than 2,300 deaths with the numbers climbing.

"We have to remember we're still in the middle of a public health crisis. Now, it's starting to creep back up into the 8 per cent range and that starts to concern us," said Dr Umair Shah, the executive director of Harris County Public Health.

The US is currently the world's worst-hit nation from the pandemic and has had more than 9.8 million cases and over 237,000 deaths from the virus since the pandemic started in the central Chinese city of Wuhan last year.

Johns Hopkins University's Covid tracker reported more than 50.2 million cases globally as of Sunday. There have been more than 1.2 million deaths from the disease worldwide since the pandemic started. PTI

Russia reports record daily rise

Moscow: Russia reported a record high of 21,798 new infections on Monday as the authorities called for stricter measures to contain the virus in certain regions.

“It is necessary to strengthen restrictions and control over their implementation in the regions where the daily infection are spreading at rates significantly higher than the average Russian levels," Anna Popova, head of Russia's consumer health watchdog, said. Reuters