Covid-19 cases cross 1 lakh mark
Bangkok, March 6: Crossing more borders, the new coronavirus hit a milestone Friday, infecting more than 100,000 people worldwide as it wove itself deeper into the daily lives of millions, infecting the powerful, the unprotected poor and the vast masses in between.
The virus, which has killed nearly 3,400 people, edged into more and more US states, popped up in at least four new countries and even breached the halls of the Vatican. It forced mosques in Iran and beyond to halt weekly Muslim prayers. It brought Israeli and Palestinian authorities together to block pilgrims from Jesus’ birthplace in Bethlehem. And it upended Japan’s plans for the Olympic torch parade. “Who is going to feed their families?” asked Elias al-Arja, head of a hotel owners’ union in Bethlehem in the Israelioccupied West Bank, where tourists were banned and the storied Church of Nativity shuttered.
The 100,000 figure of global infections is largely symbolic but dwarfs other major outbreaks in recent decades. SARS, MERS and Ebola affected far fewer people but had higher mortality rates.
The head of the UN’s food agency, the World Food Programme, warned of the potential for “absolute devastation” as the outbreak’s effects ripple through Africa and
● The 1 lakh figure of global infections is largely symbolic but dwarfs other major outbreaks in recent decades.
● In Mecca’s Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site, attendance at Friday prayers was hit due to various steps the Middle East.
US health officials said they expect a far lower death rate than the World Health Organisation's international estimate of 3.4 per cent — a high rate that doesn’t account for mild cases that go uncounted. The fear and the crackdowns that swept through China are now shifting westward, as workers in Europe and the US stay home, authorities vigorously sanitise public places and consumers flock to stores for household staples.
“The Western world is now following some of China’s playbook,” said Chris Beauchamp, a market analyst at the financial firm IG. The spectacle of a cruise ship ordered to stay at sea off the California coast over virus fears replicated ones weeks ago on the other side of the globe in which hundreds of people were infected on a ship even during a quarantine.