Britain's virus death toll surpasses 50,000, highest in Europe

New records also shattered in US, with 200,000 cases diagnosed in a day; Texas becomes first American state to have more than 1 million COVID-19 infections

More than 50,000 people who tested positive for coronavirus in Britain have now died, official figures showed Wednesday, with another 595 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours.

Britain’s death toll now stands at 50,365, the highest in Europe, with another 22,950 testing positive for the disease over the last day, according to government data.

A second wave of the coronavirus pandemic prompted the British government to impose a four-week national shutdown this month, ordering people to stay at home and most businesses to close. It is due to end in England on December 2.

The virus caseload was also soaring in the United States, where a record 200,000 new COVID-19 cases were registered on Tuesday and another 1,535 people lost their lives in 24 hours.

A medical staff member holds a patient’s hand who is suffering from coronavirus in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center (UMMC) on November 10, 2020, in Houston, Texas. (Go Nakamura/Getty Images/AFP)

Texas has become the first US state with more than 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases as the nation continues to face a surge of infections, according to data from Johns Hopkins University early Wednesday.

The nation’s second-most populous state has recorded 1,010,364 coronavirus cases with 19,337 deaths since the pandemic began in early March, according to the count on the Johns Hopkins website.

On Tuesday, 6,867 new deaths were recorded worldwide, with the highest daily tolls in France, Spain and the United States.

The US remains the hardest-hit nation at more than 10 million cases and nearly 240,000 deaths, with shocking new data now including a record 60,000 current hospitalizations.

The virus is reaching the farthest corners of the earth, with the tiny Pacific Ocean state of Vanuatu reporting its first case, ending its status as one of the few remaining virus-free countries.

A man walks past closed shops in London on November 10, 2020. (Tolga Akmen / AFP)

In Europe, which has suffered more than 317,525 deaths from nearly 13,330,000 infections, many countries are struggling with a surging second wave.

The virus has claimed at least 1,275,113 lives worldwide, according to an AFP tally, with more than 51 million cases registered across the globe.

Italy’s trailblazing rapid tests, which are roughly 80 to 90 percent accurate, have done little to stop an outbreak that has rocketed from around 500 cases a day in August, when they were first rolled out, to more than 35,000 now — with infections set to top one million on Wednesday.

In Ukraine, meanwhile, nearly 2,000 people protested in Kyiv against possible weekend restrictions that officials say may come into force to slow the spread of the virus there.