Casualties by COVID-19: Global deaths cross 200,000

ISLAMABAD: The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned on Saturday recovering from coronavirus may not protect people from reinfection as the global death toll from the pandemic crossed 200,000 figure.

Governments across the world are struggling to limit the economic devastation unleashed by the virus, which has infected over 2.8 million people and left half of humanity under some form of lockdown. The United Nations has joined world leaders in a push to speed up development of a vaccine, but effective treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, are still far off. But with signs the disease is peaking in the US and Europe, governments are starting to ease restrictions, weighing the need for economic recovery against cautions that lifting them too soon risks a second wave of infections.

The WHO warned on Saturday that there is still no evidence that people who test positive for the new coronavirus and recover are immunised and protected against reinfection. The warning came as some governments study measures such as "immunity passports" or documents for those who have recovered as one way to get people back to work after weeks of economic shutdown. "There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from #COVID19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection," WHO said in a statement. "People who assume that they are immune to a second infection because they have received a positive test result may ignore public health advice," it said.

On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asked for international organisations, world leaders and the private sector to join the effort to speed up development and distribution of a vaccine. Any vaccine should be safe, affordable and available to all, Guterres said at a virtual meeting, which was attended by the leaders of Germany and France. The spread of COVID-19 is increasing other medical risks as well with the WHO warning nearly 400,000 more people could die from malaria because of disruption to the supply of mosquito nets and medicines. Saturday marked World Malaria Day, a disease which the WHO said could kill around 770,000 this year, or "twice as much as in 2018".

With more than four billion people still on lockdown or stay-at-home orders, governments are debating how to lift restrictions without causing a spike in infections and how to revive economies battered by weeks of closure. The daily death toll in Western countries seems to be falling, a sign hopeful epidemiologists had been looking for, but the WHO has warned that other nations are still in the early stages of the fight.

Global COVID-19 deaths have climbed past 200,000, according to international media reports, but new reported cases appear to have levelled off at about 80,000 a day. The United States is the hardest-hit country by far in the pandemic, recording nearly 53,000 deaths and over 900,000 infections. Spain´s daily virus toll -- the third highest fatality rate in the world -- rose slightly on Saturday with 378 people dying, a day after the country registered its lowest number of fatalities in four weeks.

In a sign of potential risks, Iranian health officials Saturday also raised fears of a "fresh outbreak" with another 76 fatalities declared, bringing Iran´s official death toll to 5,650. Iran has steadily allowed the reopening 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".

The unprecedented situation has left the world staring at its worst downturn since the Great Depression, and world leaders are trying to balance public health concerns with economic needs. Beyond the US, other countries have already started loosening restrictions.

Italy announced plans Saturday to set price limits on face masks and ramp up antibody testing as it nears the end of the world´s longest active national coronavirus lockdown. Sri Lanka said it would lift a nationwide curfew tomorrow (Monday) after more than five weeks, as Belgium joined other European nations to announce an easing from mid-May. In France, which will be on lockdown until May 11, residents still confined to home have taken to praising health workers and protesting their frustrations with officials on painted banners hung outside their windows.

Across the Muslim world, hundreds of millions of faithful also opened the Ramazan holy month under stay-at-home conditions, facing unprecedented bans on prayers in mosques and on the traditional large gatherings of families and friends to break the daily fast.

The new coronavirus has killed more than 119,000 people in Europe with more than three quarters of those fatalities in Italy, France, Spain and Britain. With 119,621 deaths and 1,249,334 cases, Europe is the continent hardest hit by the pandemic that emerged late last year. Italy has the most deaths with 26,334 followed by Spain with 22,902, France with 22,245 and Britain with 20,319. The United States has also surpassed the grim milestone of 50,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic. As the southern state of Georgia lifted restrictions on a list of businesses that also included nail salons and bowling alleys, President Donald Trump warned that Governor Brian Kemp may be moving too fast. "Spas, beauty salons, tattoo parlours, & barber shops should take a little slower path," Trump tweeted.

At the same time, Trump said he had told Kemp, a Republican ally, "to do what is right for the great people of Georgia (& USA)!" The mixed messaging was the latest from a president whose remarks from the White House podium have frequently raised eyebrows, including most recently a suggestion that disinfectant could be injected to treat patients with COVID-19. Trump sought to walk back his disinfectant comments on Friday, claiming somewhat unconvincingly that he had been speaking "sarcastically." With much of the country on lockdown for a month, customers showed up early at several Georgia shops.

Meanwhile, Australians and New Zealanders marked Anzac Day from the isolation of their driveways to honour their armed forces after the pandemic saw parades cancelled and ceremonies closed to the public.

Meanwhile, the WHO launched a global collaboration against COVID-19 with leaders from France, Germany and the EU among others. "Today, WHO is proud to be uniting with many partners to launch the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, or the ACT Accelerator," said the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"This is a landmark collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics for COVID-19," he said at the event which drew representatives from the public, private, and non-governmental sectors.

The event was co-sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest non-profit organisation. The aim of the collaboration was explained by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, who will lead a pledging conference on May 4. Von der Leyen said: "This campaign is to kick off an ongoing rolling replenishment. The aim is to raise €7.5 billion ($8 billion) to ramp up work on prevention diagnostics and treatment. And this is a first step, only, but more will be needed in the future."

She invited "everyone, governments, business leaders, philanthropists, artists, and citizens to raise awareness about the pledging effort and to help create a united front against the novel coronavirus. Absent from the video conference from around the world were leaders from China, where the novel coronavirus first appeared late last year, and also the United States.

France's President Emmanuel Macron said: "I would like to pay tribute to the healthcare workers who were fighting against COVID-19 every day, as well as to the researchers that are working around the world either from the public sector or the private sector and also to those from the humanitarian sector, from the United Nations or those from NGOs."

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is the current chair of the African Union, said: "The world needs solidarity and cooperation to mobilise and guide, all efforts and drive delivery towards equitable access to new COVID-19 diagnostics therapeutics and vaccines."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: "The world needs the development, production and equitable delivery of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, therapeutics and diagnostics. "Not a vaccine or treatments for one country or one region or one-half of the world, but a vaccine and treatment that are affordable, safe, effective, easily-administered and universally available, for everyone, everywhere. None of us is safe until all of us are safe."

Germany's Angela Merkel noted that there were some countries in which the COVID-19 virus had been particularly virulent. "We will have to develop new methods, trying new approaches, globally, for example, to ramp up the production capacities in many different countries around the world."