PARIS, April 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The new coronavirus has claimed at least 200,736 lives since its outbreak in China in December, according to official sources at 1900 GMT on Saturday.
More than 2,864,070 cases were registered in 193 countries and territories. Of these cases, at least 772,900 are now considered recovered.
The tallies, using data collected from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.
Since Friday evening, 6,813 new deaths and 93,320 infections were recorded worldwide. The United States, the worst-hit country, registered 2,710 of those deaths, Britain 813 and Italy 415.
The United States has the highest number of deaths with 53,070 from 924,865 cases.
Italy has the second highest toll with 26,384 deaths out of 195,351 cases, followed by Spain (22,902 deaths and 223,759 cases), France (22,614 deaths and 161,488 cases) and the UK with 20,319 fatalities and 148,377 cases.
China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 4,632 deaths and 82,816 cases, just 12 more since Friday.
Europe has a total of 122,171 deaths from 1,360,314 cases, the United States and Canada have 55,586 deaths and 969,896 cases, Asia has 7,854 deaths from 195,102 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean have 7,434 deaths from 150,162 cases, the Middle East has 6,225 deaths from 150.625 cases, Africa has 1,361 deaths from 29,981 cases and Oceania has 105 deaths from 7,991 cases.
Meanwhile hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world spent the second day of the Ramadan holy month out of mosques and avoiding large family meals to break the fast because of sequestration and social distancing policies.
And Australians and New Zealanders marked Anzac Day without the normal parades and public ceremonies to commemorate fallen soldiers. Instead, under social distancing policies, people held dawn vigils in front of their homes.
Even as governments from Sri Lanka to Belgium to the United States began moving in the direction of partial reopening, the COVID-19 pandemic still had nearly half of humanity under some form of lockdown or confinement.
The world remained in wait as companies and governments raced to develop treatments and, eventually, a vaccine for the virus, which first surfaced in China in late 2019.
Despite Saturday’s grim milestone in virus fatalities, the daily toll in Western countries appeared to be levelling off and even falling, a sign hopeful epidemiologists had been looking for.
Likewise, new reported cases appear to have plateaued at about 80,000 a day.
But in many countries there were worries of a second surge after lockdown restrictions are eased, possibly also coinciding with a new flu season.
In hard-hit Iran, health officials Saturday raised fears of a “fresh outbreak” with another 76 fatalities declared, bringing the country’s official death toll to 5,650.
Iran has steadily allowed the restarting of businesses that were closed to stop the virus spread. But Alireza Zali, a health coordinator for the capital, criticised “hasty reopenings” that could “create new waves of sickness in Tehran”.
In Washington, the White House’s top pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci said this week that the United States will certainly have a coronavirus problem in the fall, which could be complicated by the return of the seasonal flu toward year-end.
Even so, the pressure from broken economies and citizens frustrated by stay-at-home orders had areas pushing to open up.
German police arrested dozens of protesters in Berlin on Saturday for flouting the coronavirus lockdown measures they were demonstrating against.
The governor of the US state of Georgia rejected warnings from top disease experts and allowed businesses like hair dressers, nail salons and bowling alleys to reopen.
On Saturday many Georgians embraced the return to something resembling normalcy by flocking to the beach.
In southern California thousands flouted policies to stay indoors and headed to beaches amid a heat wave.
On Friday, Belgium’s Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes announced a staggered plan for reopening businesses and schools in mid-May and restaurants beginning on June 8.
“The spread of COVID-19 has been slowed down, but the virus has not disappeared,” she warned.
Italy, nearing the end of the world’s longest active lockdown, announced plans Saturday to set price limits on face masks and ramp up antibody testing.
Italians are awaiting a decision this weekend about which restrictions will be lifted. They will probably be allowed to leave their homes freely for the first time since March 9 by early May.
Spaniards will be allowed out for exercise and to take walks starting next weekend, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Saturday.
The government will on Tuesday unveil its broader coronavirus exit plan that will likely be put into action in the second half of May, he said.
“If the pandemic keeps evolving positively as it has been doing until now, from May 2, individual physical activity will be permitted and walks with the people you live with,” he said. — NNN-AGENCIES
