Coronavirus: global deaths and infections overtake those inside China
Global death and infection from coronaviruses have surpassed those in China for the first time since the onset of the outbreak.
According to a report by the National Health Commission of China, infections worldwide have increased to more than 87,000, while cases in China, stood at 80,860 on Monday.
Deaths outside China rose to more than 3,241, according to Johns Hopkins, while deaths in China stood at 3,208 on Monday (excluding four in Hong Kong and one in Taiwan).
A chart produced by Johns Hopkins University illustrates the dramatic increase in global cases. The angle of the yellow global curve seems to indicate that infections outside of China have grown faster than inside China when infection began there.
The most significant infection center outside of China is in Italy, where nearly 25,000 confirmed cases and more than 1,800 deaths.
Elsewhere in Europe described by the World Health Organization as the center of the pandemic, France has 4,500 cases and 91 deaths, Germany has 11 deaths and more than 5,700 cases, the Netherlands has 20. deaths and 2,270 infected people, Switzerland has 14 deaths. and 2,200 infections, and in the UK 21 people died and 1,144 people.
The next hardest affected country was Iran, where fewer than 14,000 cases were confirmed and 724 deaths. There are concerns that the country's fragile economic and economic services are struggling to cope with the disease, and on Friday satellite imagery appeared to show mass graves being located. Digging in Qom city to bury coronavirus victims.
In the US, which rapidly escalated its response to the virus over the weekend with Donald Trump declaring a national emergency, cases have jumped to 3,500, with at least 57 deaths recorded. There has been substantial criticism of the Trump administration, and the president himself, who only two weeks ago when the country had 15 infections suggested the number would be down to zero before long.
Trump also accused Democrats of using the coronavirus as “their new hoax”, promised a vaccine much sooner than scientifically possible.
The Centers for Disease Control in the US advised against gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks and the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to 0.25%.
The first shipment of masks and coronavirus test kits to the US is taking off from Shanghai. All the best to our friends in America.
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Other measures to step up containment in the US and around the world include:
- From Tuesday New York City will limit restaurants, bars and cafes to only offer take-out and delivery. Nightclubs, movie theatres and other entertainment venues would close.
- Several Las Vegas hotels and casinos said they would suspend operations.
- Washington state announced restaurants and bars would be limited to take-out only until the end of March, and entertainment and recreational facilities such as gyms would also close.
- Australia’s Reserve Bank said it was prepared to start quantitive easing to boost the economy, which could involve buying government bonds and other financial assets from banks and pensions funds. The country’s share market closed 9.7% down on Monday.
- New Zealand imposed a 500-person limit on gatherings, while the PM, Jacinda Ardern, said the virus impact could be greater than that of the global financial crisis.
- Turkey reported 12 new cases, bringing its total to 18 – the biggest jump since it reported its first case last week.
- British over-70s will be asked to self-isolate for up to four months, in order to protect them from the virus.
- Luxembourg on Sunday followed its neighbours France and Belgium in closing bars and restaurants to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus epidemic.
- Louis Vuitton owner LVMH has said its cosmetics unit would manufacture large quantities of hand disinfectant gel to help stave off a nationwide shortage across France as the coronavirus continues to spread.
- South Africa declared a national disaster and introduced a series of drastic measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
While many countries have been late to respond to the threat, South Korea, which has a more than 8,000 confirmed infections has quickly controlled the spread of the virus, through rapid testing and quarantine measures in the worst affected areas. It has recorded three days where recoveries have outstripped new infections.
Despite the country’s progress, it has identified a new cluster of cases, near Seoul. At least 40 members of a protestant church tested positive, including the pastor, after services on 1 March and 8 March, despite government calls to cancel mass gatherings.
The vice health minister, Kim Gang-lip, said that continuing new infections are a reminder that the country should not forget “the lessons we’ve learned” and that new outbreaks implied that the virus was still “spreading across the country”.
As in other countries, the elderly have been the most vulnerable. The country’s centre for disease control said 70.6% of deaths were in their 70s and above. Another 18.7% of fatalities were in their 60s. The centre said no death in Korea had been reported in a patient under 29.
MW
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