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| REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration |
As of 16.22 today more than 1,218,991 people have been infected across the world and over 65,878 have died but at the same time 253,821 people have recovered.
The USA is now the country with the most infected cases (311,637) ahead of Spain (126,168) who overtook Italy (124,632) in the last couple of days. Germany and France follow with 96,092 and 89,953 cases respectively
Confirmed Deaths:
Italy: 15,362 Spain: 11,947 USA: 8,454 France: 7,560
CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK IN NUMBERS (updated continuously)
TRACKING THE SPREAD OF THE VIRUS
All the latest news in brief as it happens
15.25 Deaths in Netherlands rise by 115 to 1,766
The number of deaths caused by the new coronavirus in the Netherlands has increased by 115 to 1,766, health authorities said on Sunday.
Confirmed infections increased by 1,224 to 17,851, the Dutch Institute for Public Health said
14.47 Spain’s coronavirus death toll rises by 674 but pace keeps slowing
The rate of new coronavirus infections and deaths in Spain slowed again on Sunday as the country, suffering from one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the pandemic, began its fourth week under a near-total lockdown.
Deaths from the highly infectious Covid-19 respiratory disease rose to 12,418 on Saturday – the second-highest worldwide after Italy. However, the toll of 674 people who died during the past 24 hours was down from Saturday’s 809 and well below Thursday’s daily record of 950, the Health Ministry said.
14.35 Singapore reports 120 new cases in record daily jump
Singapore’s health ministry on Sunday confirmed 120 more coronavirus cases, the most new infections reported in a single day for the city-state.
The number of new cases is a 60% increase over the 75 reported on Saturday, which was the previous biggest rise. Singapore has reported a total of 1,309 infections and suffered six deaths from the global pandemic.
13.07 Swiss coronavirus death toll rises by 19 to 559, cases top 21,000
Switzerland’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has risen by 19 to 559, the health ministry said on Sunday.
The number of people testing positive increased to 21,100 from 20,278 on Saturday, it said.
13.04 Iran’s deaths from coronavirus reach 3,603 – health ministry
The death toll in Iran from the outbreak of the new coronavirus has reached 3,603, health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement broadcast live on state TV on Sunday.
One hundred and fifty one people have died in the past twenty four hours, he said.
12.43 Worldwide coronavirus cases cross 1 million, death toll passes 64,000
More than 1.19 million people have been reported infected by the novel coronavirus across the world and 64,421 have died, according to a Reuters tally. Infections have been reported in more than 200 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
12.35 UK coronavirus deaths could reach 7,000 to 20,000
UK deaths from the coronavirus could rise to between about 7,000 and 20,000 under measures taken to slow the spread of the virus, Neil Ferguson, a professor at Imperial College in London who has helped shape the government’s response, said on Sunday.
12.07 UK will have to take further action if people flout lockdown rules -Hancock
Britain will have to further restrict rules allowing outdoor exercise if people flout lockdown rules designed to combat the coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday.
“I don’t want to have to take away exercise as a reason to leave home … if too many people are not following the rules,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme.
“At the moment the vast majority of people are. But we should not break the rules because that would mean that the virus spreads more and we then might have to take further action.”
11.44 Philippines reports 8 additional coronavirus deaths
The Philippine health ministry reported on Sunday 8 additional coronavirus deaths and 152 newly confirmed cases.
The positive cases in the Philippines totalled 3,246, as of 0800 GMT, while the death toll has risen to 152, it said in the daily bulletin.
11.07 British health minister denies clash with finance chief over lockdown strategy
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Sunday denied there was any disagreement with Finance Minister Rishi Sunak about when lockdown restrictions to fight the coronavirus could be lifted.
British newspaper reports on Sunday said Sunak was pushing for a path to be mapped out towards lifting the restrictions to help limit damage to the economy.
“We are working very closely together, and what matters is that we can get out of this as fast as possible,” he told Sky News on Sunday.
“We have to make sure that as many people as possible follow the rules so we can slow the spread.”
10.42 Australia upbeat over slowing spread
Australian health officials said on Sunday they were cautiously optimistic about the slowing spread of the coronavirus in the country but warned social distancing restrictions are to stay in place for months.
Confirmed cases rose by 139 during the 24-hour period to Sunday afternoon, bringing the national total to 5,687, Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said. The death toll from Covid-19 rose to 34.
This suggests the daily rate of infections was below 5%, about a fifth of what Australia saw in mid-March.
10.40 Iran’s Rouhani says low-risk economic activities to resume from April 11
Iran’s president said on Sunday “low-risk” economic activities would resume from April 11 in the Middle Eastern country worst-affected by the new coronavirus.
Iran has been struggling to curb the spread of the highly infectious respiratory disease known as Covid-19 but authorities are also concerned that measures to curb public life to contain the virus could wreck an already sanctions-hit economy.
“Under the supervision of the health ministry, all those low-risk economic activities will resume from Saturday except in Tehran,” President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised meeting.
10.17 Tokyo sees more than 130 new coronavirus cases
More than 130 people were newly infected with the novel coronavirus in Tokyo, Japan’s NHK public broadcaster reported on Sunday, citing officials from the metropolitan government.
It was the highest daily jump in confirmed cases so far, bringing the number of positive cases in the capital to more than 1,000, NHK said.
10.16 Greece quarantines second camp
Greece has quarantined a second migrant facility on its mainland after a 53-year-old man tested positive for the new coronavirus, the migration ministry said on Sunday.
The Afghan man lives with his family at the Malakasa camp along with hundreds of asylum seekers. He has been transferred to a hospital in Athens.
09.29 Morocco to release 5,654 prisoners
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has pardoned 5,654 prisoners and ordered measures to protect inmates from the coronavirus outbreak, the justice ministry said on Sunday.
The inmates were selected on the basis of their age, frail health, time spent in prison and good conduct, the ministry said in a statement.
04.11 Trump questions states’ ventilator needs
President Donald Trump on Saturday doubled down on his support for a drug that is still being tested to treat the coronavirus, saying he might take the medicine himself and encouraging others with doctor approval to do the same.
At his daily press briefing, Trump also chided some states for requesting more ventilators from the federal government than he said they needed.
Trump said the next week would be particularly tough with a “lot of death” coming from the coronavirus. But he also reiterated his concern that the social distancing “cure” for the outbreak was worse than the problem.
What happened on Saturday
EUROPE
- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will ask parliament to extend lockdown measures by 15 more days until April 26. The daily pace of new infections and deaths slowed again on Saturday in one of the world’s most hard-hit countries.
- Britain is unlikely to lift its stringent lockdown rules until the end of May, once the spread of the coronavirus has started to slow, a leading government adviser said as the death toll rose to 4,313.
- Germany’s confirmed cases have risen by 6,082 in the past 24 hours, a slight decrease from the day before, according to data from the government’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
ASIA
- China mourned the thousands who have died in the outbreak, flying the national flag at half mast throughout the country and suspending all forms of entertainment.
- Authorities in some India states warned on Saturday that lockdowns to rein in the pandemic could be extended in parts of the country as the number of cases rose above 3,000.
- Australia reported a sustained fall in new infections and conducted the biggest peacetime maritime operation on Sydney Harbour, refuelling foreign cruise ships before expelling them from local waters.
AMERICAS
- Two of the principal U.S. coronavirus hot spots – New York and Louisiana – reported their biggest jumps in COVID-19 deaths yet on Friday, as the White House sent mixed messages on whether Americans should cover their face if they venture outdoors.
- New York City alone accounted for more than a quarter of the 7,077 U.S. coronavirus deaths tallied by Johns Hopkins University on Friday. Known U.S. infections, approaching 275,000 cases, made up about 25% of the more than 1 million cases reported worldwide.
- Brazilians increasingly disapprove of President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the outbreak and overwhelmingly support officials he has attacked for advocating social distancing measures, two polls showed.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
- Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi postponed the launch of mega-projects including the Grand Egyptian Museum and moving civil servants to a planned new capital city to 2021 from 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak, the presidency said.
- The United Arab Emirates has extended a de facto overnight curfew indefinitely to disinfect public areas and Saudi Arabia has locked down parts of the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
- The coronavirus has infected more than 3,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa and killed about 100, prompting some of the world’s poorest countries to shut land and sea borders.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
- The job losses suffered in March as the U.S. economy shut down were widespread but still were disproportionately felt in a handful of employment sectors and by women, the young and the less educated.
- The pandemic has brought the global economy to a standstill and plunged the world into a recession that will be “way worse” than the global financial crisis a decade ago, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Friday.
- Global stock markets sank on Friday following more signs that the pandemic would take a massive toll on economic growth.
REUTERS
