Worldwide coronavirus death toll crosses 34,500

ROME (92 News) – The death toll of coronavirus (COVID-19) has reached to 34,780 worldwide and officials in some countries say the worst still lies ahead. According to the latest data of the center, there are more than 722,000 confirmed cases globally, with 34,000 deaths. Italy has reported more than 10,000 deaths, followed by Spain with 6,803 with 821 deaths in a single day. The United States has the most COVID-19 cases in the world, with a fresh figure of 142,000 and death toll surpassed 2,500 with more 264 deaths. US President Donald Trump decided last night against imposing a broad lockdown on New York and its neighbours after a strong pushback from local political leaders and warnings of the panic it could spark. Britain has reported 17,089 confirmed cases of the disease and 1,019 deaths and the peak of the epidemic in the country is expected to come in a few weeks. The outbreak has infected more than 1,800 people in Japan, with 55 deaths, excluding 712 cases and 10 deaths from a cruise ship that was moored near Tokyo last month. Iran’s Coronavirus death toll has risen to 2,640 with 38,309 infected cases. A health ministry official said today that 3,467 of those infected are in “critical condition”. Health officials say they fear New York may follow the deadly path charted by Italy, with health professionals exhausted and hospitals desperately short of protective equipment and ventilators. The US now has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world, at 122,666, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. One of the deaths announced Saturday was that of an infant in Chicago who was younger than one year old, marking an extremely rare case of juvenile death in the global pandemic. Italy and Spain Compared to the US, European nations have been harder hit on a per capita basis, with 20,059 deaths. Italy on Saturday announced 889 new deaths, pushing it past the 10,000 mark. Spain, which has the world’s second-highest death toll, added 832 deaths for a total 5,812. Madrid toughened a nationwide lockdown, halting all non-essential activities, though officials said the epidemic in the country seemed to be nearing a peak. Russia, which has reported relatively low levels of the virus, said it would close its borders Monday in an attempt to slow the pandemic’s spread. More than 640,770 cases of the novel coronavirus have been officially recorded around the world since the outbreak began late last year, according to an AFP tally. Variations in testing regimes — and delays in providing sufficient tests in some countries — mean the true number is likely far higher. In France, which has seen close to 2,000 deaths, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe warned the “battle” was just beginning. The first two weeks in April would be even tougher than the past fortnight, he said. The British toll passed 1,000 on Saturday. Elsewhere, Iran announced 139 more deaths and India sealed off a dozen Punjab villages that had been visited by a guru now known to be infected and a possible “super-spreader”. Sri Lanka and Qatar recorded their first deaths and Turkey hit 100 fatalities. South African police resorted to rubber bullets in Johannesburg to enforce social distancing on a crowd queuing for supplies outside a supermarket during a national lockdown. Wuhan partially reopens Two months of almost total isolation appear to have paid off in Wuhan. Residents have been subject to dramatic restrictions on daily life and forbidden to leave the city since January, but on Saturday, people were allowed to enter Wuhan and most of the subway network restarted. In the US, Trump invoked emergency powers on Friday to force automaker General Motors to produce medical equipment. With 60 percent of the US in lockdown, the president signed the largest relief package in US history, worth $2 trillion — with more seen as likely in coming months. ‘Enough, enough’ In Italy, one coronavirus sufferer, a cardiologist from Rome who has since recovered, recalled his hellish experience. “The treatment for the oxygen therapy is painful, looking for the radial artery is difficult. Desperate other patients were crying out, ‘Enough, enough’,” he told AFP. Infection rates in Italy are on a downward trend. The head of the national health institute Silvio Brusaferro predicted a peak “in the next few days”. Belgium and Luxembourg saw a steep climb in deaths, with 353 recorded in the former on Saturday — up from 289 the day before — and 15 in the grand duchy, up from nine. Europe has suffered the brunt of the coronavirus crisis in recent weeks, with millions across the continent on lockdown and the streets of Paris, Rome and Madrid eerily empty. Other countries across the world were bracing for the virus’s full impact. As even rich countries struggle, aid groups warn the toll could be in the millions in low-income countries and war zones such as Syria and Yemen, where health care systems are in tatters.