Global death toll crosses 1,00,000

Staff Reporter |

Hundreds of millions of people around the world will spend the Easter holiday at home as lockdown measures intensify to combat the coronavirus, a pandemic with a global death toll rapidly crossing 100,000.

Governments have forced businesses to close and limited the movement of half the world’s population, halting economic activity and prompting the International Monetary Fund to warn that the world faces its worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Some 17 million Americans have so far lost their jobs, prompting the US government to launch a $2.3 trillion rescue package, while the European Union late Thursday struck a 500-billion euro ($550 billion) deal to help hard-hit member states.

The United States is now emerging as the global hotspot of the virus. More than 1,700 people died on Thursday from almost 500,000 cases, bringing its total death toll to the second highest in the world after Italy. It also has the largest number of cases anywhere in the world by far.

Officials have recorded more than 1.6 million cases and more than 100,000 deaths in 193 countries since the virus emerged in China in December, according to an AFP tally at 11:00 GMT Friday based on official sources.

The United States with 466,299 is the hardest-hit country in terms of cases, of whom 16,686 have died.

Europe remains the hardest-hit continent in terms of cases with 826,389 and 67,247 deaths. Italy has the highest death toll at 18,279 followed by Spain with 15,843. France has 12,210 deaths and Britain 7,978.

Latin America and the Caribbean have passed the 50,000 case mark, with 2,090 deaths.

Belgium’s death toll from the pandemic has topped 3,000 after the country recorded 496 more deaths in the past 24 hours. Spain has recorded its lowest daily death toll in 17 days, with 605 people dying.

But there was relief in Britain as prime minister Boris Johnson, among the world’s most high-profile virus sufferers, was moved to a normal hospital ward after three days in intensive care.

‘He is in extremely good spirits,’ a government spokesman said.

And across Europe and the United States, officials sought solace in slightly improving figures.

Spain, the third hardest-hit country, saw its lowest day toll in 17 days, and prime minister Pedro Sanchez said Thursday the ‘fire started by the pandemic is starting to come under control’.

France also reported that fewer people were in intensive care for COVID-19, the first fall since the pandemic broke out.

Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top pandemic expert, said the United States was ‘going in the right direction’ after a slight drop in the US daily death rate from Wednesday's record toll of 1,973.

In New York, the epicentre of the virus in the United States, the rate of hospital admissions fell on Thursday and state governor Andrew Cuomo said the actions taken in the state were ‘flattening the curve’, referring to attempts to stabilise the death rate.

The fallout is shaking every corner of the financial world, with sectors from travel and tourism to hospitality and arts and culture slammed by the pandemic.

Iran on Friday announced another 122 deaths from the novel coronavirus, taking the overall toll in the Middle East's worst-hit country to 4,232. The health ministry said 1,972 people tested positive for the COVID-19 virus in the past 24 hours, putting the total at 68,192. The IMF, which has $1 trillion in lending capacity, said it was responding to calls from 90 countries for emergency financing. ‘We anticipate the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression,’ said IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva, urging governments to provide lifelines to businesses and households.

EU finance ministers agreed the 500 billion-euro rescue package after late-night talks Thursday, aiming to reduce the pain across the 27-nation bloc, especially in Italy and Spain. ‘Europe has decided and is ready to meet the gravity of the crisis,’ French finance minister Bruno Le Maire tweeted.

On Friday, the head of the EU Council called a special videoconference for April 23 to forge a recovery plan for Europe's hard-hit economies. 

The US Federal Reserve also threw a lifeline to Americans, with chairman Jerome Powell announcing a $2.3 trillion financing measure ‘to provide as much relief and stability as we can during this period of constrained economic activity’.

And major oil producers except Mexico agreed to cut output after a dramatic slump in demand caused by the virus, exacerbated by a Saudi-Russia price war, sent prices crashing to a near two-decade low.

Despite hopeful signs in Western nations and China — where the virus was first detected late last year — there are fears the worst is still to come in much of the developing world.

War-torn Yemen, which has been experiencing one of the world's most acute humanitarian crises, on Friday reported its first case.

Brazilian authorities confirmed the first deaths in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, where overcrowding and poor sanitation have raised fears of a catastrophe.

There are similar fears in India, where hundreds of millions of poor people are becoming increasingly desperate.

‘I keep hearing that the government will do this and that. No one has even come to see if we are alive or dead,’ Rajni Devi, a mother of three, said in a slum on the outskirts of New Delhi.

Several governments in Asia have been accused of slow responses to the crisis — Indonesia, which has the worst figures on the continent outside of China — on Friday stiffened its containment measures.


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