Covid locks down 4B residents

NEW YORK: More than 3.38 billion to 4 billion people are now on total lockdown or in confinement measures, according to a database provided by the Agence France-Presse (AFP), as the virus infects every sphere of life — wiping out millions of jobs, postponing elections and clearing the sporting calendar.

The lockdown, which is either total or partial, is now in effect in more than 40 countries, four of which — India, Pakistan, Japan and Russia — have population of no less than 110 million, according to various sources.

In the United States, President Donald Trump warned that the US crisis, which has seen a doubling of infections in only two days, would continue to get worse for some time.

“The modeling estimates that a peak in death rates is likely to hit in two weeks,” he said, announcing an extension of physical distancing guidelines until April 30.

“Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won.”

The president was speaking after Anthony Fauci, who leads research into infectious diseases at the US National Institutes of Health, said he believed 100,000 to 200,000 Americans could die from the disease, and potentially infect millions.

Officials continued to sound the alarm over medical shortages, with some bemoaning a system that has states competing for desperately needed supplies.

“We’re bidding against one another,” said Michigan’s Gov.

Gretchen Whitmer.

The human consequences of a shutdown that has seen huge chunks of the US economy grind to a halt were playing out at food banks in New York, where organizers say demand has exploded.

Trump’s reevaluation of a backto-normal timeline came as British officials said life might not return to normal for six months.

The country’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny Harries said it would be several weeks before doctors could tell if the current lockdown had slowed the spread of the disease.

In Italy, the government warned citizens should be ready for a “very long” lockdown that would only be lifted gradually, despite the economic hardship it was causing.

Yet the strains on Italian society imposed by measures that might have seemed unimaginable just weeks ago are gradually starting to show.

The starkest example came when armed police began guarding entrances to supermarkets in Sicily after reports of looting by people who could no longer afford food.