Coronavirus global death toll rises sharply

ISLAMABAD: Europe and America continued to be hit hard by coronavirus on Thursday as the global death toll reached more than 58,500 with more than 5,400 new deaths, confirmed cases reaching 1,091,232 mark, while about 228,035 patients have recovered. According to the latest international media reports, 72,528 cases were added to the total tally on Friday. France on Friday emerged as the country with most deaths in a single day for second consecutive day as it reported 1,120 deaths, while 766 new deaths were reported by Italy, taking the toll to 14,681, most deaths in the world. Other worse hit countries are UK with 684 new deaths, Germany with 168 new deaths, Belgium with 132 and Netherlands with 148 new deaths.

It was another tough day for the US with 857 more deaths taking its total death toll to 6,927, while Spain was also hit hard with 661 new deaths. Now Spain is the country with over 11,000 deaths, the second most after Italy. The third country with most deaths is the US which is top as far as the number of infections is concerned.

According to latest scenario, the focus of the coronavirus crisis has switched decisively from continental Europe to the US, with the country reporting the highest daily death toll of any nation so far.

The pandemic continues to spread rapidly around the globe, infecting well over one million people.

Italy has suffered the most deaths with a tally of 14,681, followed by Spain with 10,935, but the toll in the US – which now accounts for about a quarter of the world’s known infections – is rising fast and has neared 7,000.

Hospitals and morgues in New York struggled to treat or bury casualties as the state governor, Andrew Cuomo, predicted similar misery for the rest of the country. New York suffered its deadliest single day on Friday, with 562 additional deaths across the state for a total of 2,935, Cuomo said, with 102,863 confirmed cases.

He warned that people were going to die in the near term due to a lack of ventilators, adding that he would use his authority to take ventilators and protective gear from private hospitals and companies that are not using them. “If they want to sue me for borrowing their excess ventilators to save lives, let them sue me,” Cuomo said.

About 90 percent of Americans are under some kind of stay-at-home order as the country tries to slow the spread by enforcing physical distancing guidelines, although a handful of governors are still resisting issuing statewide confinement orders.

Donald Trump sparked fresh alarm when his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, said the president became concerned about a shortage of vital medical equipment after hearing about it from “friends of his in New York”, suggesting he was responding to anecdotes rather than the state governor or public health officials.

Turkey decided to shut down borders of 31 cities and imposed a partial curfew for citizens under the age of 20, effective from midnight Friday to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Bulgaria's parliament approved to extend its state of emergency for another month, until April 13 as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 485. 14 people in Bulgaria have died so far from COVID-19.

Russia will suspend all flights bringing Russians home from abroad from Friday night, the Interfax news agency cited sources as saying. The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said 25,000 people abroad had appealed for help getting home, with many still stranded as measures to curb the spread of coronavirus have limited travel options.

Israel set up roadblocks to close off an ultra-Orthodox Jewish town badly affected by the coronavirus, but ordered in soldiers to support the residents.

The forced cremation of two COVID-19 infected Muslims in Sri Lanka has sent shock waves among the minority community, which accused the authorities of violating Islamic burial rites.

Bishrul Hafi Mohammed Joonus, a 73-year-old man from the capital Colombo who died of COVID-19 , was the second Muslim to have been cremated in the Indian Ocean island nation, which has registered 151 cases so far.

While most businesses have shut their doors as part of a lockdown, the coffin-making factory in the sleepy town of Jussey in northeastern France can barely keep up with the orders.

"Given what's happening, the pace of production is going up by 50 coffins a day," said Emmanuel Garret, manager at the OGF plant.

Iran's death toll from the new coronavirus rose to 3,294 as it claimed 134 lives in the past 24 hours, according to Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpur.

The total number of people confirmed to be infected is 53,183, he said on state television, adding that 4,035 were "under observation", a term that may mean they are in a critical condition. Of the total number of people diagnosed with the disease, 17,935 have recovered.

As the number of coronavirus cases in India climbs, imposing a lockdown on 1.3 billion people was always going to be challenge. Analysts say the movement restrictions will likely prove economically devastating for India's poor, many who live in its vast rural areas.

Mainland China reported 31 new confirmed coronavirus cases, including two locally transmitted infections, the country’s National Health Commission said on Friday.

Mainland China also reported four new deaths as of Thursday, all in Wuhan, the city where the outbreak began, the commission said in a statement. The total number of infections now stands at 81,620 and 3,322 deaths have been reported from mainland China to date.