Global Covid cases top 472m

The overall number of Covid cases has surged past 472 million as the pandemic enters into its third year, reports agencies.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 472,048,486 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,093,516 Tuesday morning.
The US has recorded 79,775,780 cases so far and 972, 603 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,010,6611 on Monday, as 1,549 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's data.
Besides, as many as 129 deaths due to the pandemic since Saturday morning took the total death toll to 516,574.
Meanwhile, Brazil reported 102 deaths and 11,364 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the national death toll to 657,363 and the total caseload to 29,641,848, the country's Ministry of Health reported Monday.
Brazil has been struggling with the Omicron variant of the virus since the end of December, with a record number of infections in January, but since February, indicators such as deaths, hospitalisations and positive cases have been in sharp decline, according to official data.
AFP adds: China locked down an industrial city of nine million people overnight and reported more than 4,000 virus cases on Tuesday, as the nation's "zero-Covid" strategy is confronted by an Omicron wave.
Health authorities reported 4,770 new infections across the country, the bulk in the northeastern province of Jilin, as the city of Shenyang in neighbouring Liaoning province was ordered to lock down late Monday.
China has moved fast in recent weeks to snuff out virus clusters with a pick-and-mix of hyper-local lockdowns, mass testing and citywide closures. It reported two Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, the first in over a year.
Authorities have warned of the risk posed to growth by persistent lockdowns as the country strives to balance the health crisis with the needs of the world's second biggest economy.
Shenyang, an industrial base home to factories including carmaker BMW, reported 47 new cases Tuesday as authorities put all housing compounds under "closed management" and barred residents from leaving without a 48-hour negative test result.
Last week Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the need to "minimise the impact" of the pandemic on China's economy, but also urged officials to "stick to" the current zero-Covid approach.
But Beijing's virus playbook has been stretched to the limit by the latest Omicron surge, which has forced authorities to free up hospital beds from mild-symptom patients.
Some cities such as Shanghai have avoided a full lockdown and instead imposed a web of individual building lockdowns, even as new daily asymptomatic infections there spiral into the hundreds.
Jilin provincial officials announced Monday that the first 10,000 doses of Pfizer's oral Covid drug arrived on Sunday, marking the first time Paxlovid has been used in China.
The province last week imposed strict travel curbs banning locals from leaving their cities and counties, while several cities have already confined residents at home.
The southern tech powerhouse of Shenzhen on Monday announced it would lift its week-long lockdown "in an orderly manner", after having partially eased measures on Friday to minimise the impact of virus shutdowns on factories and ports.