Asia becomes second region in world to cross 1 crore COVID-19 cases

New Delhi, Oct 24: Asia became the second heaviest regional toll in the world to exceed 1 crore coronavirus cases on Saturday, according to a Reuters tally, as cases continue to mount in India despite a slowdown and sharp declines elsewhere.

Asia accounts for about one-fourth of the 4.2 crore global cases and 14 per cent of global death toll.

Within the region, South Asia, which is led by India, is the worst-affected as it accounts for nearly 21 per cent of global caseload.

Behind only Latin America, Asia accounts for about one-fourth of the global caseload of 42.1 million of the virus.

India is the worst-hit country in the world after the United States, following by Brazil.

The true numbers of cases and deaths are likely much higher, experts say, given deficiencies in testing and potential underreporting in many countries.

Despite the Asian hike, the region overall has reported improvement in handling the pandemic in recent weeks, with daily infection slowing in places like India - a sharp contrast to the COVID-19 resurgence seen in Europe and North America.

India is reporting more than 50,000 cases of the virus a day, viewed on a weekly average, with 58 new cases per 10,000 people in Asia's third-largest economy, according to a Reuters analysis.

India is averaging 764 COVID-19 deaths a day, the worst in the world and accounting for one in every 13 global pandemic deaths.

The country has reported nearly 7.8 million infections, behind the US tally of 8.5 million, and nearly 1,18,000 deaths, while 2,24,128 in US.