From some scary new death toll projections coming from the US to a tobacco maker’s bid to produce vaccines and Saudi planning to postpone hajj, read these and more in today’s international dispatch
US President Donald Trump has warned that the next two weeks will be painful, as new projections by experts fix the potential death toll at 240,000. This is despite stringent social-distancing measures being followed in the country. “We’re going through the worst thing that the country’s probably ever seen,” Trump said. Elsewhere, there is growing scepticism around the official pandemic numbers reported from China, which added only 68 new cases yesterday. Residents of Wuhan, where the virus originated, have dismissed official figures. Most people believe deaths could be as many as 40,000, not the 2,400 officially reported from the city. From a global point of view, we may be underestimating the coronavirus death toll.
Let’s look at the global statistics:
Total confirmed cases: 874,081
Change over previous day: 74,032
Total deaths: 43,291
Total recovered: 185,196
Nations hit with most cases: US (189,633), Italy (105,792), Spain (102,136), China (82,308), and Germany (72,383).
UN estimates on pandemic crisis: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the coronavirus the biggest threat the world faced since the World War II. The UN also launched a report on the potential impact which predicted among other things that 25 million jobs around the world will be lost and there will be up to 40 per cent “downward pressure” on global foreign investment. Read more here.
Tackling ICU beds shortage: With a shortage of ICU beds, European nations are on a building and hiring spree, putting together makeshift hospitals and shipping coronavirus patients out of overwhelmed cities via high-speed trains. London is putting up 4,000 beds in a massive convention centre. Dozens of hotels across Spain are turned into recovery rooms, while in Milan beds are being put on fair grounds. Read more here.
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