World Coronavirus Dispatch: How the 'Alpha' variant rattled the world

Japan's GDP shrinks less than feared, Inequality legacy haunts South Africa's vaccine rollout plan, and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Japan's GDP shrinks less than feared, easing double-dip worries

Japan’s economy shrank less than the preliminary estimate in the first quarter, easing concern over the risk of a double-dip recession as the country struggles through yet another round of restrictions to contain the coronavirus. Gross domestic product contracted at an annualised 3.9 per cent as against the estimate of 5.1 per cent, beating analyst forecasts and showing the world’s third-largest economy had weathered a winter wave of the virus better than the government earlier estimated. Read here

Let's look at the global statistics

Global infections: 173,639,206

Global deaths: 3,737,447

Vaccine doses administered: