Europe hits grim milestone
30,000 lives lost as UN warns of humanity’s worst crisis since WWII
The coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 30,000 lives in Europe alone, a global tally showed, in what the head of the United Nations has described as humanity’s worst crisis since World War II.
Italy and Spain bore the brunt of the crisis, accounting for three in every four deaths on the continent, as the grim tally hit another milestone even though half of the planet’s population is already under some form of lockdown in a battle to halt contagion.
Some 41,000 deaths have been recorded worldwide from more than 830,000 infections since the pandemic emerged in China in December.
For UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, the extraordinary economic and political upheaval spurred by the virus presents a real danger to the relative peace the world has seen over the last few decades.
The “disease ... represents a threat to everybody in the world and ... an economic impact that will bring a recession that probably has no parallel in the recent past.
“The combination of the two facts and the risk that it contributes to enhanced instability, enhanced unrest, and enhanced conflict are things that make us believe that this is the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War,” he said.
As companies shut down for undetermined periods and entire workforces are forced to stay home to halt the spread of Covid-19, scenes of economic desperation and unrest were emerging across the globe.
In Italy, queues were lengthening at soup kitchens while some supermarkets were reportedly pillaged.
Half a million more people now need help to afford meals, Italy’s biggest union for the agriculture sector Coldiretti said, adding to the 2.7 million already in need last year.
“Usually we serve about 152,525 people. But now we have 70,000 more requests,” confirmed Roberto Tuorto, who runs a food bank association.
It was crucial to “ensure that the economic crisis unleashed by the virus doesn’t become a security crisis,” he warned.
The economic pain of lockdowns is especially acute in the developing world.
In Tunisia, several hundred protested a week-old lockdown that has disproportionately hit the poor.
“Never mind coronavirus, we’re going to die anyway! Let us work!” shouted one protester in the demonstration on the outskirts of the capital Tunis. — AFP