This week saw a record number of Covid-19 cases in countries across the world as the number of people infected approached 50 million.
On Saturday the United States hit the higest daily number since the pandemic began, with 126,742 new cases. It was the fourth day this week that new infections totaled more than 100,000, according to data from John Hopkins University.
Across the Atlantic, the UK government said some 24,957 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the country on Saturday and 413 died of the virus, a toll that continues to rise. On the same day Liverpool began mass testing the city’s population of 500,000 people in a bid to control the virus.
France passed the grim milestone of 40,000 coronvirus deaths after 306 were registered in a 24-hour period were registered, said the French Public Health Agency on Saturday. This comes after France had two consecutive days of record new daily coronavirus cases, with more than 60,000 announced on Friday alone.
Austria reported a new daily record of 8,241 infections on Saturday, according to data on the country’s interior ministry website. The landlocked European country entered its second national lockdown this week.
A number of countries banned travelers arriving from Denmark after a mutated strain of the coronavirus — connected to the country’s mink farms — was detected. According to the Danish government, the mutated form of the virus has been passed back to humans.
Greece, Latvia and Germany all implemented lockdowns this week.
In Japan, the health ministry said 1,329 new cases were reported on Saturday, their highest daily infection toll since August 14 and the third consecutive day in four figures. At least three people died, bringing the nationwide death toll to 1,825.