India today once again recorded over 78,000 fresh cases of Covid-19, taking the nationwide tally to 37,69,524, according to Union health ministry. The number of active cases reached 8,01,282, and those discharged from hospitals stood at 29,01,908 – a gap of 21,00,626. The death toll reached 66,333 after 1,045 people died due to the disease in the last 24 hours. Five states – Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh – have accounted for over half of the total Covid-19 cases and close to 60 per cent of the recoveries, the minittry said on Tuesday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 6,004,443 cases of the coronavirus, an increase of 32,087 from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 428 to 183,050. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by the coronavirus versus its previous report on Monday. The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states. The United States, the world’s top economy, suffered a 9.5-percent slump in the second quarter following a 1.3 percent drop in the first, according to figures published by the OECD. The US has reported the highest Covid-19 death toll, with more than 180,000 fatalities.

Meanwhile, Australia has entered its first recession since 1991 after the economy shrank 7 percent in the second quarter, official figures showed Wednesday, as the country reels from the coronavirus pandemic. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said it was the fastest quarterly contraction on record and ends a three-decade run of economic growth that was undented even by the global financial crisis. The bureau’s head of national accounts, Michael Smedes, said the pandemic and containment efforts were to blame for the “unprecedented” drop that exceeded previous records “by a wide margin”. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction. Australia’s economy shrank 0.3 percent in the previous three months.

The widely expected result is in line with earlier government predictions that gross domestic product would contract seven percent in April-June. “The June quarter saw a significant contraction in household spending on services as households altered their behaviour and restrictions were put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus,” Smedes said. Hours worked fell almost 10 percent while cash payments of social benefits rose more than 40 percent, both records for the country. Trade also took a hit during the quarter, with imports of goods down 2.4 percent and exports of services dropping 18.4 percent, the bureau’s figures showed. The government has stumped up tens of billions of dollars to fight the economic fallout from pandemic. Australia’s forced shutdown earlier in the year crippled the economy and a current lockdown of five million people in Melbourne has compounded its problems.

The country was already reeling from a prolonged drought and massive bushfires that had rattled the economy before the disease struck. Australia has now confirmed almost 26,000 cases of Covid-19 and 663 deaths from the virus, the vast majority in Melbourne and its surrounds since July. The government in July predicted a return to growth in the third quarter as virus restrictions eased. But the closure of non-essential businesses in Melbourne, the country’s second-biggest city, could stifle the recovery. Authorities expect national unemployment to peak at 9.3 percent in December and the budget deficit to blow out to almost a tenth of GDP by mid-2021.

Brazil and India reported historic second-quarter drops in national economic output this week, a situation seen in almost all leading global economies owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Only China, where the outbreak was first reported, has escaped a recession.