Since its appearance at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, a metropolis in the center of the country, the coronavirus has infected at least 2.2 million people worldwide, led to the unprecedented confinement of at least 4.5 billion people and made part-time unemployed or total of tens of millions of them, 22 million in the United States alone.
The pandemic of the new coronavirus has killed at least 150,142 people worldwide since its appearance in December in China, according to a report established by AFP from official sources Friday at 9:00 p.m. More than 2,207,730 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed in 193 countries and territories since the start of the epidemic. This number of diagnosed cases, however, only reflects a fraction of the actual number of infections, with a large number of countries only testing cases requiring hospital treatment.
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World Tour
Among these cases, at least 483,000 are today considered cured. Since the count carried out the day before at 9:00 p.m., 9,022 new deaths and 91,270 new cases have been recorded worldwide. The countries with the most new deaths in 24 hours are United States with 2,985 new deaths, mainland china (1,290 new deaths after the announcement by the town hall of Wuhan, the initial focus of the pandemic, of the review of its balance sheet) and the United Kingdomi (847). The United States, which recorded its first death linked to the coronavirus at the end of February, is the country most affected in terms of number of deaths and cases, with 34,575 deaths for 683,786 cases. At least 56,546 people were declared cured. After the United States, the most affected countries are Italy with 22,745 deaths for 172,434 cases, spain with 19,478 dead (188,068 cases), France with 18,681 dead (147,969 cases), and the United Kingdom with 14,576 deaths (108,692 cases).
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China (excluding the territories of Hong Kong and Macao), where the epidemic began at the end of December, officially counted a total of 82,367 cases (26 new between Thursday and Friday), including 4,632 deaths (1,290 new), and 77,892 cures. Europe totaled, on Friday at 9:00 p.m., 96,721 deaths for 1,100,677 cases, the United States and Canada 35,929 deaths (715,428 cases), Asia 6,801 deaths (157,131 cases), the Middle East 5,371 deaths (117,953 cases), Latin America and the Caribbean 4,242 deaths (89,460 cases), Africa 995 deaths (19,296 cases), and Oceania 83 deaths (7,785 cases).
This assessment was carried out using data collected by AFP offices from the competent national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Trump accuses Beijing of downplaying death toll
President Donald Trump again attacked China Friday saying that the number of deaths linked to the coronavirus in this country was “much higher” than the authorities have said, while the global toll of the pandemic exceeds 150,000 dead. China, which has increased the number of its victims, however, denied any hiding.“There has never been any cover-up and we will never allow any cover-up“Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, praising a”impeccable answer (…)“from his country to this health crisis.
This manager simply recognized “delays” and “omissions” in the registration of deaths. The Wuhan city hall had previously surprised everyone by announcing an additional 1,290 deaths, victims who actually died at home. This new count brings to 4.632 the official death toll in the most populous country in the world.
Virology Institute
“China has just announced the doubling of the number of deaths caused by the Invisible Enemy. It is much higher than that and much higher than that of the United States!” tweeted Trump, whose country has more than 34,600 dead. If it is not really a “doubly” of the number as advanced by the American president, it is a new thundering charge against Beijing. The American president clarified a little later in the press that this revision only concerned the city of Wuhan and that the figures for all of China must be much higher. The American administration has accused the Communist regime for weeks of “concealing” the gravity of the epidemic. She announced Thursday that she has launched a “exhaustive survey“on the origin of the Covid-19 disease, accrediting the thesis carried by certain American media that it could come from a virology laboratory of Wuhan, and not from a market of exotic animals, as generally accepted until now.
Trump expects up to 65,000 deaths in the United States
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump expects the death toll from the new coronavirus in the United States to be between 60,000 and 65,000, he said at a press conference on Friday. The latest forecasts were for at least 100,000 deaths. “I think we can stay below 100,000,” he said. “At this time, we are heading for a death toll of 60,000, perhaps 65,000.” Nearly 700,000 people have been officially registered as infected and around 37,000 have already died, including just over 17,000 in New York State.
Aid to farmers
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab have also questioned Beijing’s transparency. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), also accused of having delayed responding to the pandemic, many countries will have to revise upward the human toll of Covid-19.
Noting once again the ravages of the pandemic on the American economy, Donald Trump has put on the table $ 19 billion to support an agriculture, whose production and distribution chain is completely turned upside down.
However, he assured that the health situation was improving in the United States, the most affected country in the world, with nearly 700,000 confirmed cases and 36,000 deaths.
In Germany, Health Minister Jens Spahn said the epidemic was now “under control and manageable.” The country plans to reopen its stores soon, and from May 4 schools and high schools. It will manufacture from August around 50 million masks per week, promised the authorities.
The deconfinement is also on the way in Denmark which reopened its schools on Wednesday, in Austria and in Italy which want to reopen some of their nonessential stores or in Switzerland which announced a “slow” and “progressive” deconfinement as from April 27.
But for WHO, the pandemic is far from being stopped in Europe, with “constant or increased figures” in the east of the continent and in the United Kingdom where the government decided on Thursday to extend the confinement “for at least three weeks”.
Russia registered 4,070 new cases on Friday in 24 hours (for 32,008 in total), mostly in Moscow. The Russian government has also authorized the treatment of patients with hydroxychloroquine, a derivative of the antimalarial chloroquine, the efficacy of which is the subject of worldwide debate.
“Task force”
To date, 2,207,730 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed in 193 countries, and more than 150,000 deaths, according to a count established by AFP from official sources.
After the United States, Italy (22,745 dead), Spain (19,478), France (18,681) and the United Kingdom (14,576) are the countries hardest hit.
In Italy, nearly 17,000 health professionals were infected, or 10% of the total contaminations in the country, for 125 doctors who died. Good news of the day, however: the country has recorded a record number of healings in one day (2,563) since the start of the crisis.
In the UK, the executive, accused for a while of delaying the spread of the virus, announced the creation of a “task force” to “coordinate the efforts” of government, research and industry, and accelerate the development and mass production of a future vaccine “as soon as it is ready”.
In France, 1,081 sailors tested positive for Covid-19 on the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle – the flagship of the French Navy – and the naval aviation group that accompanies it, out of 2,300 people, according to a new assessment by army.
In Belgium, the pandemic has killed more than 5,000 people, half of which in retirement homes, according to the latest official report.
Natives hidden in the forest
The economic crisis caused by the pandemic risks erasing the development progress recorded in recent years in poor countries, warned the World Bank on Friday. “an unprecedented crisis, the health, economic and social effects of which are devastating worldwide”.
The World Bank and the IMF have therefore launched an appeal to creditors to help Africa, where the pandemic could wreak havoc, which will need around 114 billion dollars in 2020 to fight against Covid-19.
Like many famous sites and monuments, the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, on the peaks of Peru, has closed its doors, for the second time only since it opened to tourism in 1948.
In this region of Loreto, near the place where the Amazon river takes its source, the natives hide at the bottom of the forest to escape the virus. Their communities “have decided to return inside their lands and avoid contact with the outside,” said one of their representatives.
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