Russia registers 2nd highest cases globally

Moscow/Washington : The number of coronavirus cases in Russia has increased to 232,243 on Tuesday, the second highest number of infections in the world surpassing the tallies in Spain and the UK, while the US accounted for the highest number of infections in the world at 1,347,936, the country's anti-coronavirus crisis centre said.

The tally surged to 232,243 after the 10,899 cases were reported over the past 24 hours, TASS News Agency quoted the centre as saying.

A total of 43,512 patients have recovered, while 2,116 people have died, it added.

According to the centre's data, the daily growth rate on Tuesday was 4.9 per cent compared to 5.6 per cent the day before.

As of Tuesday, the number of coronavirus cases in Spain and the UK stood at 227,436 and 224,332, respectively, according to the Washington-based Johns Hopkins University.

Italy came in the fifth place with 219,814 cases.

Meanwhile, New York City, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, is likely to stay closed until June, Mayor Bill de Blasio has said, even as three regions of New York State are set to reopen on May 15.

New York has been recording a decline in daily hospitalisations, ICU admissions and fatalities but the mayor said such progress must continue further before officials consider reopening the city.

"On the reopening, we're clearly not ready yet. So I think it's fair to say that June is when we are potentially going to be able to make some real changes, if we can continue our progress," Mayor Blasio said at his daily press briefing on Monday.

He said that by the end of May or the beginning of June is when one will be "able to start filling in the blanks."

Meanwhile, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that three regions -- Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley Regions -- have met the seven metrics required to begin phase 1 of the state's regional phased reopening plan when 'New York State on pause orders expire' on May 15.

Cuomo said if the trend continues, starting on May 15 these three regions can begin opening businesses for phase one, which includes construction; manufacturing and wholesale supply chain, retail for curbside pickup and drop-off or in-store pickup, and agriculture, forestry and fishing.

New York state has 3,37,055 confirmed coronavirus cases with more than 26,000 people dying from the disease. New York City alone has 1,83,662 cases and 14,928 deaths.