Global Covid-19 death toll tops 100,000, cases hit 1.7m
GENEVA, April 11, 2020
The number of deaths linked to the novel coronavirus across the globe has reached 103,000, as the tally of cases passed 1.7 million. The toll has been accelerating at a daily rate of between 6% and 10% over the past week, according to media reports.
US deaths due to the coronavirus topped 19,500 on Saturday while the number of infections rose past half a million over the Easter weekend, according to a Reuters tally.
The number of US deaths is the second highest in the world but may soon overtake Italy, which has a much smaller population, when it updates its figures later on Saturday.
The US has seen its highest death tolls to date in the pandemic with roughly 2,000 deaths a day reported for the last four days in a row.
Public health experts have warned that the US death toll could spike to 200,000 over the summer if unprecedented stay-at-home orders that have closed businesses and kept most Americans indoors are lifted after 30 days.
US President Donald Trump said despite the horrible loss of life so far, there were signs the country was flattening the curve.
US, he stated, would see far fewer than 100,000 deaths over the course of the outbreak, a minimum figure that had been predicted.
More than 40 per cent of the deaths in the US so far have happened in New York state, which reported 777 new deaths on Friday, reported ABC.
For millions across the globe, Easter weekend will be unlike any other in recent memory. Christians marked Good Friday in isolation.
There are encouraging signs, though, that two hard-hit states are starting to turn a corner in their virus fight. The number of people being hospitalized with COVID-19 in New York and California is falling, it stated.
Some countries, including Italy, France, Algeria, the Netherlands, Spain and Britain are reporting more than 10 per cent of all confirmed cases have been fatal.
One of the largest studies of the fatality of the disease, involving 44,000 patients in China, put the rate about 2.9 per cent.
The same study reported 93 per cent of recorded fatalities were people over the age of 50, and more than half were over 70.
Despite that, there are growing numbers of young adults and teenagers included in the global toll.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that it was looking into reports of some Covid-19 patients testing positive again after initially testing negative for the disease while being considered for discharge.
South Korean officials on Friday reported 91 patients thought cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again.
Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a briefing that the virus may have been “reactivated” rather than the patients being re-infected.
The Geneva-based WHO, when asked about the report from Seoul, told Reuters in a brief statement: “We are aware of these reports of individuals who have tested negative for Covid-19 using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing and then after some days testing positive again.
“We are closely liaising with our clinical experts and working hard to get more information on those individual cases. It is important to make sure that when samples are collected for testing on suspected patients, procedures are followed properly,” it said.
With Covid-19 activity showing some early signs of stabilizing in parts of Europe, some governments are considering extending their lockdown orders, as cases are still surging or picking up in other parts of the continent, reported ABC.
India has decided to extended its initial three-week lockdown of its 1.3 billion people as the coronavirus crisis worsens.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with states to decide whether to extend its stringent restrictions beyond next week.
Several states urged the Prime Minister to act despite the measures putting millions of poor people out of work and an exodus of migrant workers from cities to villages.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Prime Minister had "taken [a] correct decision to extend [the] lockdown".
"If it is stopped now, all gains would be lost. To consolidate, it is important to extend it," he said.
Meanwhile, cases are accelerating in part of Asia, including Indonesia, Singapore, and Japan, and economic leaders are grappling with the pandemic's economic impact and how to fund the response, it stated.
According to health experts, a grim milestone has been hit amid a global rise in death toll, with countries around the world reviewing their strategies to combat the virus.
Meanwhile, a glimmer of hope for Spain as its overnight death toll reaches 510 — the lowest in 19 days.
Australian health authorities continue to urge people to break long-held Easter traditions to stay at home, in India officials have decided to extend the country's strict lockdown, while in Britain the virus is yet to peak despite thousands of deaths.
While North America now accounts for more than 30 per cent of cases, Europe has reported a disproportionate number of fatalities, as countries with older populations like Spain and Italy have been severely affected.
Southern Europe alone accounts for more than a third of global deaths, despite recording just 20 per cent of cases.
In many countries, official data includes only deaths reported in hospitals, not those in homes or nursing homes.
The death toll now compares with that of London's Great Plague in the mid-1660s, which killed an estimated 100,000 people, about a third of the city's population at the time.
But it is still far short of the so-called Spanish flu, which began in 1918 and is estimated to have killed more than 20 million people by the time it petered out in 1920.
