Coronavirus (COVID-19) Global Latest Updates: Funeral home worker Jesus Cutipa awaits his turn to enter Jardines del Buen Retiro cemetery for the funeral of a man who died due to COVID-19 in Lima, Peru, Saturday, April 25, 2020. (AP Photo)
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Global Latest Updates: More than 2.9 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus while over 2,00,000 have died across the world. US has the maximum number of cases in the world, followed by Spain and Italy. And the World Health Organisation said there was no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 cannot fall sick again.
Here are some of the news on the coronavirus pandemic from across the world.
US economy faces historic shock, unemployment rate higher than 16%
The shuttering of the U.S. economy due to the coronavirus pandemic is a shock of historic proportions that likely will push the national unemployment rate to 16% or higher this month and require more stimulus to ensure a strong rebound, a White House economic adviser said on Sunday, reported news agency Reuters.
“It’s a really grave situation,” President Donald Trump’s adviser Kevin Hassett told the ABC program “This Week.”
“This is the biggest negative shock that our economy, I think, has ever seen. We’re going to be looking at an unemployment rate that approaches rates that we saw during the Great Depression” of the 1930s, Hassett added. Lockdowns around the United States to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus have hammered the economy, shuttering businesses and sending unemployment skyrocketing.
A record 26.5 million Americans have filed for jobless benefits since mid-March, and retail sales, homebuilding and consumer confidence have all cratered.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts U.S.
Trump’s disinfectant remark remaining in the news is bothering: White House doctor
US President Donald Trump’s remarks that disinfectants could potentially treat coronavirus patients remaining in the news after four days of them being made was “bothering”, a key member of the White House Task Force on Coronavirus has said. “I think it bothers me that this is still in the news cycle, because I think we’re missing the bigger pieces of what we need to be doing, as American people, to continue to protect one another,” Dr Deborah Brix, member of the White House Task Force on Coronavirus, told CNN in an interview.
Trump on Wednesday had suggested the possibility of studying injecting disinfectants into COVID-19 patients or bringing UV light “inside” their bodies to kill the deadly virus, drawing immediate flak from health experts while a leading disinfectant producer urged people not to listen to such dangerous speculation.
Brix, a leading doctor specialising in HIV/AIDS immunology, said the dialogue should focus on asymptomatic cases and not on the president’s remarks. “We should be having that dialogue about this unique clotting that we’re seeing. We are the first country that really had young people to this degree. Italy and Europe is about eight years older than us, as a median age.
US coronavirus cases inch closer to a million; over 53,000 deaths
The United States has around 9,56,000 cases of coronavirus and over 53,928 deaths dues to COVID-19. Around 36,491 new cases of coronavirus were reported in US on Friday, a record daily high, according to a Reuters tally.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that reopening businesses too soon would be risky. He said that his state began conducting antibody tests of nurses, doctors, police officers, grocery clerks and other essential workers while also allowing local pharmacies to collect samples for diagnostic tests. Hospitalisations in New York, the epicentre of the pandemic in US, fell to their lowest in three weeks.
Meanwhile, the states of Georgia, Oklahoma and Alaska began loosening restrictions on businesses despite warning from experts.
Plans to restart Canadian economy do not hinge on coronavirus ‘immunity’ levels, says PM Justin Trudeau
Ottawa: Signs in the windows of a self storage facility thank frontline workers for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa, Ontario, Saturday, April 25, 2020. (AP/PTI Photo)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Saturday said that plans to restart the economies of Canadian provinces do not depend on presuming people who become infected with coronavirus develop immunity to it, Reuters reported. “(Immunity) is something we need to get clearer answers to and until we have those clear answers, we need to err on the side of more caution,” he said in his daily briefing in Ottawa.
Canada’s total number of coronavirus cases crossed 44,000 while its death toll increased by 7 per cent from a day earlier to stand at 2,350. Around 80 per cent of the cases are in Quebec and Ontario, with numerous outbreaks in nursing homes.
British PM Boris Johnson to return to work tomorrow
After having recovered from a case of coronavirus that sent him to intensive care for three nights earlier this months, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be back at work on Monday, a Downing Street spokeswoman said on Saturday. Johnson will take back control of a government under pressure from the economic fallout of shutdowns aimed at curbing the spread of the highly infectious virus, as well as a rising death toll. UK became the fifth country in the world to report 20000 virus-related deaths.
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Spain to allow outdoor exercise as kids prepare for taste of freedom
Cumulative deaths in Spain rose to 22,902 while the overall number of cases rose to 223,759 from 219,764 the day before.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced an easing of lockdown restrictions on Saturday, as children prepared to go outside for the first time in six weeks and figures confirmed a daily coronavirus death toll running well below the peak seen early this month.
In a televised address Sanchez said Spaniards will be allowed out to exercise alone from May 2 if the coronavirus toll continues to fall. People living together will be permitted to take short walks together. He also laid out the government’s wider plan to loosen the lockdown at different speeds across different regions, depending on whether they meet with criteria established by the World Health Organization. “We will not suddenly recover activity across all sectors,” he said.
Spain’s Health Ministry said 378 more people had died after being diagnosed with the coronavirus, up slightly on Friday’s 367, the lowest in the past month, but well down on the high of 950 seen on April 2. Cumulative deaths rose to 22,902 while the overall number of cases rose to 223,759 from 219,764 the day before.
French PM to present plan to unwind lockdown on Tuesday
People buy vegetables and fruits in the warehouse of farmer Pierre Rigault, in Groslay, north of Paris, during nationwide confinement measures to counter the Covid-19, Saturday, April 25, 2020. (AP Photo)
France prepared to ease one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns from May 11. French Prime Minister Edouard Phillipe will present the government’s plan to unwind the country’s coronavirus lockdown to parliament on Tuesday. The lockdown ordered by President Emmanuel Macron, which has been in place since March 17, is due to be lifted on May 11. The death toll due to coronavirus in France stands at 22,614, the health ministry said on Saturday.
Cuba sends doctors to South Africa to combat coronavirus
Community volunteers put the masks on as they prepare to distribute food packages during a 21-day nationwide lockdown aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in a township in Cape Town, South Africa, April 17, 2020. (Reuters/File)
Cuba on Saturday sent 216 healthcare workers to South Africa, the latest of over 20 medical brigades it has sent worldwide to combat the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. Cuba has sent around 1200 healthcare workers mostly to African and Carribean nations but also to European countries such as Italy. Cuba has at least 1,227 cases of coronavirus and 51 deaths. The country has one of the world’s highest number of doctors per capita. South Africa has recorded over 4,361 cases of coronavirus, with 86 deaths.
Mexico coronavirus cases rise to 13,842
A street vendor sells acrylic face masks at a stop light in Tijuana, after the Mexican government declared a health emergency and issued stricter regulations to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Tijuana, Mexico April 25, 2020. (Reuters)
Mexicos’s health ministry Saturday reported 970 new coronavirus cases and 84 deaths, bringing the total cases to 13,842 and 1,305 deaths. The government said the real number of infected people is likely considerably higher than the confirmed cases.