US tops world in virus cases, overtaking China, Italy
THE PANDEMIC HAS KILLED 25,066 PEOPLE, WITH EUROPE ACCOUNTING FOR MOST OF DEATHS
WASHINGTON DC: The United States on Thursday took the grim title of the country with the most Coronavirus infections and reported a record surge in unemployment as world leaders vowed $5 trillion to stave off global economic collapse.
More than 500,000 people around the world have now contracted the new Coronavirus, overwhelming healthcare systems even in wealthy nations and triggering an avalanche of government-ordered
lockdowns that have disrupted
life for billions.
The Coronavirus pandemic has killed 25,066 people, with Europe accounting for most of the deaths, according to an tally.
Europe was the worst-hit continent with 17,314 fatalities. Italy had the highest numbers of deaths in the world at 8,165, followed by Spain (4,858) and China (3,292).
In the United States, more than 83,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19, edging out Italy, which has reported the most deaths, and China, where the virus was first detected in December in the metropolis of Wuhan.
The US has recorded 1,178 deaths, while the global death toll stood at 23,293.
“We are waging war on this virus using every financial, scientific, medical, pharmaceutical and military resource, to halt its spread and protect our citizens,” US President Donald Trump said.
With about 40 percent of Americans under lockdown orders, Trump urged citizens to do their part by practicing social distancing: “Stay home. Just relax, stay home.”
Meanwhile, Italy recorded a shocking spike in Coronavirus deaths Friday with 969 new victims, the worst daily record for any country since the pandemic began.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte wants a “strong and sufficient” financial response that deploys “innovative financial instruments truly adapted to a war,” his office said.
Alarmed by the rapid spread of the sickness in Italy, France has taken aggressive action to stem the virus and went under lockdown on March 17.
“It is very difficult to estimate when the peak will come,” French health official Jerome Salomon said. “People who are ill now were infected before the confinement began.”
“Now there is less contact, people are going out less and get infected less. So we hope there will be fewer people getting sick next week and fewer people going to hospital,” he told reporters.
With hospitals under severe strain, medical workers in Italy and Spain are making painstaking choices.
“If I've got five patients and only one bed, I have to choose who gets it,” Sara Chinchilla, a pediatrician at a hospital near Madrid, he said.
“People are dying who could be saved but there's no space in intensive care.”
In Britain, the National Health Service said London's hospitals are facing a “continuous tsunami” of seriously ill COVID-19 patients, despite a lockdown imposed this week. The pandemic has already, and rapidly, been catastrophic to the global economy.
Tokyo's millions of citizens have been told to stay home, too, just days after the city was forced to postpone the 2020 Olympic Games for a year.