Covid-19 deaths

Excess deaths are a measure of how many more people are dying than would be expected compared to the previous few years.

Although it is difficult to say how many of these deaths have been caused by Covid-19, they are a measure of the overall impact of the pandemic.

India has officially recorded more than 414,000 Covid-19 deaths so far.

The country is one of the few major economies without an estimate of excess deaths during the pandemic.

The virus continues to spread as President Jair Bolsonaro refuses to back measures like social distancing.

The health institute Fiocruz said the situation is "critical". Only 15 percent of adults are fully vaccinated.

Congress is investigating the government's handling of the pandemic.

Bolsonaro has been heavily criticised for not implementing a co-ordinated national response and for his scepticism toward vaccines, lockdowns and mask-wearing requirements, which he has sought to loosen.

The US also ranks highest in total number of recorded cases, with nearly 33.5 million infections since 2020.

This latest milestone comes as President Joe Biden's goal of getting 70% of US adults vaccinated by 4 July appears increasingly likely to fail.

Over 173 million people, around 52% of the US, have had at least one dose.

The death toll now stands at 180,764.

Peru has been among the hardest hit Latin America countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, with its hospitals overcrowded with patients and demand for oxygen outstripping availability. Experts had long warned that the true death toll was being undercounted in official statistics.

The government said it would now update its death count, which stood at 69,342 yesterday, in part because of a lack of testing that made it difficult to confirm whether a person had died due to the virus or some other cause.

The discovery, near the border between the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, was confirmed to the BBC on Monday.

It is not clear how the bodies came to be there, but local media reports suggest they may be Covid-19 victims.

Some media reports say as many as 100 bodies have been found, and that their condition suggests they may have been in the river for several days.

"There is a possibility that these bodies have come out of Uttar Pradesh," a local official, Ashok Kumar, told the BBC after questioning local residents.

New coronavirus infections tallied 79,876 to bring the total in the year-long pandemic to more than 11.2 million, according to the Health Ministry.

The total death toll of 270,656 is the second-highest after the United States.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday that infection rates in Brazil are worrying, spurred by a new and more contagious variant known as P1, and called for much stricter public health measures.

Victoria has reported another 18 deaths in the past 24 hours, while New South Wales and Queensland are dealing with new cases.

Chief Nursing Officer Alison McMillan said while it was heartening to see daily cases in Victoria drop to below 100 for the first time in nearly two months, it was too early to celebrate.

"Many of us across the eastern seaboard particularly are seeing much nicer weather, we're seeing perhaps the first signs of spring," she said.

"So I need to ask everyone to remember that now is not the time to be complacent as we see the sun come out.

Nine people have now died in this country from the coronavirus, with six of them residents of the Rosewood Rest Home in Christchurch.

This is the highest number of deaths in a day in New Zealand.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said all four deaths were men, and three were linked to the Rosewood cluster. Two of them were aged in their 80s, and one was in his 90s.

The fourth death was a man in his 70s in Wellington, with that death linked to overseas travel. He was admitted to hospital on 22 March and had been "quite unwell for some time".