Wednesday, 6 May 2020

World coronavirus dispatch: How a Wuhan lab got mired in global blame-game

In a curious development, French scientists claim to have identified a coronavirus case dating back to December, about a month before the first cases were officially confirmed in Europe
A woman dressed in traditional costume holds an umbrella walks next to another woman both wearing a protective face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. Photo: PTI
In a rather peculiar development, French scientists say they may have identified a possible case of the new coronavirus dating back to December — about a month before the first cases were officially confirmed in Europe. The patient, who has since recovered, said he had no idea where he caught the virus, as he had not travelled abroad. France is not the only country where subsequent testing points to earlier cases. Two weeks ago, a post-mortem examination carried out in California revealed that the first coronavirus-related death in the US was almost a month earlier than previously thought. Read more here.
Let’s look at the global statistics
Total confirmed cases: 3,601,760
Change over previous day: 75,582
Total deaths: 251,910
Total recovered: 1,174,006
Nations hit with most cases: The US (1,180,634), Spain (218,011), Italy (211,938), the UK (191,832) and France (169,583).
Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center


US to fund coronavirus relief largely through borrowing: US expects to borrow a record $3 trillion in the second quarter to pay for the coronavirus relief measures passed by the Congress. The borrowing estimate for the April-June quarter is larger than the country’s largest full-year borrowing yet – the most it has borrowed in a financial year is $1.8 trillion, in 2009 because of the global financial crisis. Looking ahead to the third quarter, the US Treasury Department said it expected to borrow $677 billion.  Read more here.

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