The total number of COVID-19 cases in India crossed the 21,000-mark. Of the 21,393 cases, 16,454 are active, while 4,257 patients have recovered. The death toll stands at 681. Despite the large number of cases being added in the last few days, the spread of the disease in India has slowed down considerably as a result of the lockdown. India took eight days to travel from 10,000 cases to 20,000 cases.

Maharashtra has been reporting rapidly rising number of cases of Coronavirus infections, Gujarat has been adding numbers at an even faster rate in the last few days. In the last week, number of Coronavirus cases in Gujarat has more than tripled, from 766 on April 15 to 2407 on Wednesday, April 22.

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Globally, the death toll from the coronavirus has exceeded 183,000, with the number of cases worldwide standing at more than 2.6 million.

According to a study by Hong Kong researchers, more than 232,000 people might have been infected in the first wave of COVID-19 in mainland China, four times the official figures. Mainland China reported more than 55,000 cases as of 20 February but, according to research by academics at Hong Kong University’s school of public health published in the Lancet, the true number would have been far greater if the definition of a COVID-19 case that was later used had been applied from the outset. China has now reported more than 83,000 cases.

Ratings agency Fitch says with world gross domestic product to tumble by 3.9% in 2020, the world is on track for a recession of “unprecedented depth in the post-war period”. “This is twice as large as the decline anticipated in our early April GEO [global economic outlook] update and would be twice as severe as the 2009 recession,” said Fitch’s chief economist, reported The Guardian.

South Korea’s economy saw its worst performance in more than a decade in the first quarter as the coronavirus epidemic raged across the country, the central bank said Thursday.

Meanwhile, The director general of the World Health Organizsation has said that there is still “a long way to go” in tackling the coronavirus crisis around the world.