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Updated: April 16, 2020 8:09:08 pm
Coffin bearers wearing full PPE stand behind Benedict Somi Vilakasi’s grave during his funeral ceremony at Nasrec Memorial Park outside Johannesburg on Thursday April 16, 2020. (AP Photo / Jerome Delay)
Coronavirus Latest updates: Confirmed coronavirus infections worldwide passed 2 million on Thursday, with more than 1.38,000 deaths since the outbreak began. The death toll from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States approached 31,000, the highest so far. It is followed by Italy (21,645) and Spain (19,130). The total number of infections is also highest in the US. USA With 608,458, an increase of 26,385 cases from its previous count, followed by Spain (173,060), Italy (162,488), Germany (132,210) and France (131,361).
Meanwhile, on Wednesday night, the head of the World Health Organization said he regretted the United States’ decision to stop funding. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the United States has been “a generous and long-standing friend of WHO and we hope it will continue to be so.” Tedros said WHO was still committed to curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and that it would work with its partners to ensure that any funding shortfall could be covered.
Here are all the global news you should know:
UK may extend blockade for several more weeks
As the death toll in the UK rises to 13,729, the government will announce the extension of the national blockade for several more weeks, as health officials said Britain’s coronavirus outbreak, one of the worst in Europe , is reaching its peak. “I understand those who are calling for an end to the blockade or some sort of exit strategy to start now, but I think it is too early for that,” said British Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
A man reads a newspaper with the headline “PM in intensive care”, in front of St Thomas’ Hospital in central London, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in intensive care battling the coronavirus in London on Tuesday 7th April 2020. (AP Photo / Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, a government adviser, said easing the restrictions would also require widely expanded tests to detect the virus, so that sick people and their contacts can be isolated or quarantined.
Spain sees more than 500 new deaths, 5,183 cases of Covid-19
In another sharp increase in the daily count, Spain has recorded 551 new Covid-related deaths and more than 5,183 cases. The official death toll rose to 19,130 with 182,816 people contracting the virus. Health Minister Salvador Illa says that at least 1,312 or a quarter of Thursday new infections were identified through new rapid antibody tests that can also identify those who have already passed the disease or show no symptoms.
Health workers applaud during a memorial for their co-worker Esteban, a nurse who died of the coronavirus disease, at the Severo Ochoa Hospital in Leganés in Leganés, Spain, on Friday, April 10, 2020. (AP Photo / Manu Fernández)
USA USA: 17 bodies found in New Jersey nursing home
A morgue intended for no more than four people, saw 17 bodies piled up inside a New Jersey city in the United States earlier this week. Police in a small New Jersey city acted on an anonymous complaint about a body being stored in a shed outside one of the largest nursing homes in the United States. Upon arrival, the police removed the body from the shed only to discover 17 more bodies in a small morgue.
Workers wearing personal protective equipment bury the bodies in a trench on Hart Island in the Bronx district of New York. (AP Photo / John Minchillo, File)
“They were overwhelmed by the number of people expiring,” said Eric C. Danielson, police chief in Andover, a small town in Sussex County, the northernmost county in the state, according to the New York Times.
The 17 deceased were among 68 recent deaths related to the long-term care facility, Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II, including two nurses, authorities said. (Read more)
China could be affected by the second wave of coronavirus in November
Leading medical experts have warned that China and other countries could be affected by a second wave of coronavirus in November. Zhang Wenhong, who heads the Covid-19 team of clinical experts in Shanghai and heads the infectious diseases department at one of the main hospitals in the eastern metropolitan city, hopes that in the long term, countries will have to adopt a flexible approach to recurring outbreaks.
Wuhan passengers line up to designate where they will be quarantined in Beijing, China. (AP Photo / Sam McNeil)
While countries around the world may subject the deadly pandemic to adequate control in the fall, next winter may bring a second wave of infections in China and elsewhere, he said. As of Wednesday, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in China reached 82,341. In all, 3,342 people died from the disease, according to the China National Health Commission. (PTI)
Trump calls latest data on COVID-19 in the United States “encouraging”
President Donald Trump says the data indicates that the United States is “beyond the peak” of the COVID-19 epidemic, clearing the way for its plans to implement guidelines to begin “reopening” the country. Speaking during his daily press conference, Trump called the latest data “encouraging,” saying that “they have put us in a very strong position to finalize guidelines for states to reopen the country.” Trump said those guidelines will be released Thursday at the White House. The guidelines are expected to clear the way to facilitate patterns of social distancing in areas with low coronavirus transmission, while keeping them in place in the most affected locations. Final decisions will remain with the governors.
We are using all available authorities to accelerate the development, study, and delivery of therapies. pic.twitter.com/GKbkUd0nxd
– The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 15, 2020
Some of them have begun to cautiously prepare Americans for a post-virus life that would likely include public face coverage as the “new normal.” The governors of Connecticut, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania issued orders or recommendations that residents wear face masks. as they emerge from isolation in the coming weeks.
France reports decrease in the number of patients with COVID-19
For the first time since the outbreak of the virus began in the country, France reported a decrease in the number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals. The head of the national health agency Jerome Salomon says that there were around 500 people less infected with the virus in hospitals than the day before. He added that the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units decreased for the seventh consecutive day.
Read | In a single room flat in Abu Dhabi, 6 roommates and a COVID patient
The total number of deaths from the disease in France has risen to 17,167, including 10,643 in hospitals and 6,524 in nursing homes. Salomon urged the French to continue to apply strict confinement rules with the closure in the country extended until May 11. “We must remain vigilant,” he said.
Around 3,000 people remain hospitalized with COVID-19 in China
China, the first country affected by the coronavirus pandemic, is cautiously starting to get back to businessBut it is not easy with many millions of distrustful workers to spend a lot or even leave. Factories and stores across the country closed as the disease spread beyond central China. Millions of families were told to stay home under unprecedented lockout restrictions that have been copied by the United States, Europe, and India.
Medical staff prepares to take samples from a patient as the Morgan County Health Department begins its first day of COVID-19 testing at the site, Wednesday, April 15, 2020, in Decatur, Alabama (Dan Busey / The Decatur Daily via AP)
The worst of the outbreak, which China says killed 3,342 of the 82,341 people who tested positive there on Thursday, may have happened. But the trauma inflicted on Chinese lives and the economy is likely to last much longer. The country reported 46 new cases of the virus on Thursday, 34 of them brought from outside the country, but there were no new deaths from the outbreak. About 3,000 people remain hospitalized with COVID-19 or under isolation and monitoring to show signs of the disease or test positive, but show no symptoms.
Singapore witnesses third consecutive day of sharp daily spikes
In Singapore, 447 new cases of coronavirus were registered, it is the third consecutive day of acute daily spikes, to raise its count to 3,699. The number of infections has increased by 1,167 since Monday, mostly linked to crowded dormitories housing foreign workers from Bangladesh, India and other poorer Asian countries.
Also read | The IMF proposes to deploy a total credit capacity of USD 1 trillion to support countries that fight against COVID-19
Despite successfully handling the first wave of infections, Singapore has overlooked this vast population of foreign workers living in dormitories that generally house up to 20 men in a room with a shared kitchen, bathrooms, and other facilities. Tens of thousands of workers have been quarantined in their dorms, while some have been moved to alternative sites to reduce overcrowding. The Health Ministry said in a statement Wednesday night that the significant increase in cases among foreign workers, who now account for about half of all infections, was expected in part due to ongoing testing in the dormitories. About a fifth of the total cases were detected in a single bedroom.
Artist Sebastian Wien shows a coronavirus sculpture in his studio in Dortmund, Germany, on Wednesday April 15, 2020. He created the sculpture with the title “Here and Now”, which consists of two hemispherical steel shells, which are weld screws. (Bernd Thissen / dpa via AP)
The city-state of nearly six million people imposed a partial shutdown until May 4 and forced people to wear masks outside their homes to curb transmission of the virus. Ten people have died so far from the virus.
Canada’s blockade will last ‘many more weeks’
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Canadian blockade will last “many more weeks” and warned Canadians that if the economy reopens too soon, all the sacrifices they are making now could be in vain, as the country could see another peak in coronavirus cases. Trudeau says Canada is still “several weeks away” from being able to reopen and urged Canadians to be patient. He says that once there is a reopening, there will be a need for rapid large-scale testing and extensive contact tracing for those who test positive. He says that once Canada has passed the first wave, the government must have the capacity to eliminate any future outbreaks. His comments are the strongest so far against loosening economic constraints too soon. Canada has more than 27,557 confirmed cases, including 954 deaths.
Two women wearing masks as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus stand in front of a window as they watch the soldiers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces clean the streets with a bleach solution in Havana, Cuba, on Wednesday April 15, 2020. Cuban authorities are requiring the use of masks for anyone outside their homes. (AP Photo / Ramon Espinosa)
Soldiers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces who wear masks as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus prepare to clean the streets with a bleach solution in Havana, Cuba, on Wednesday April 15, 2020. Cuban authorities are demanding the use of masks for anyone outside their homes. (AP Photo / Ramon Espinosa)
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