August 23 coronavirus news

India surpassed three million confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, after the country reported 69,239 new infections, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

India has now recorded 3,044,940 cases and 56,706 deaths, with 912 new fatalities reported Sunday. 

It took India close to 6 months to reach 1 million confirmed cases of the virus, another 21 days to reach 2 million and just 16 more days to get to 3 million cases, according to data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 

The Ministry said 801,147 coronavirus tests were conducted in the country on Saturday, bringing the total number of tests conducted nationwide since the beginning of the pandemic to 35,292,220.

India is the third hardest-hit nation in terms of confirmed coronavirus cases behind the United States and Brazil.

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said, if elected, he would be willing to shut down the country again should there be a second wave of coronavirus in the US and scientists recommend the move to slow its spread.

Biden said he would "be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives, because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus."

He called it the "fundamental flaw" of the Trump administration's handling of the pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 175,000 Americans. 

Read more here.

The Philippines reported 4,933 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, according to the country’s Department of Health.

The Philippines has now recorded 187,249 cases, of which 69,362 are active, according to the Department of Health. The department also reported 26 new deaths, bringing the country’s death toll to 2,966. 

Another 33,672 coronavirus tests were conducted on Saturday, bringing the total number of tests conducted in the country to 2,276,622, according to the Department of Health.

New Zealand on Saturday reported three new coronavirus cases, the Ministry of Health announced on Sunday morning. 

Of the three new cases, only one was a locally transmitted infection found in the community, according to the Ministry of Health.

The locally transmitted case is epidemiologically linked to the cluster in Auckland as a household contact of a previously reported case. The remaining two cases were imported from overseas, according to the ministry.

The country has now recorded 1,324 cases, of which 114 are active. Nine of the active cases are being treated in hospital, six are in a stable condition and three are in intensive care.

On Saturday, New Zealand conducted 7,005 coronavirus tests bringing the total number of tests conducted nationwide to 692,481.

Read more about New Zealand's outbreak here.

Japan reported 986 new coronavirus cases nationwide on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 62,459, the country’s health ministry announced on Sunday morning. 

Seven deaths were reported across Japan on Saturday, raising the nationwide death toll to 1,189.

Of the 986 new cases, 256 were reported in Japan’s capital Tokyo, marking the third day in a row that the city has seen a daily increase of over 200 cases. Over 60% of the new cases in Tokyo were in their 20s and 30s, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The capital now has 19,121 confirmed cases of coronavirus.

President Trump will hold a news conference at 6 p.m. ET Sunday to discuss “a major therapeutic breakthrough” regarding coronoavirus, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced.

She said Alex Azar, Secretary for US Health and Human Services, Stephan Hahn, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, would be in attendance.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump accused the US Food and Drug Administration of deliberately delaying coronavirus vaccine trials without providing any evidence.

"The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics," Trump tweeted, continuing to push his unfounded theory that there is a "deep state" embedded within the government bureaucracy working against his reelection.

He accused the agency of delaying a vaccine for the virus until after the fall election, tweeting: "Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!" Trump ended his tweet by tagging the Twitter account of Hahn, who he nominated last year to take up the role.

Hahn assured Americans earlier this month that the agency "will not cut corners" to approve a vaccine.

Read more here.