Virus deaths top 250 000

GRIM: VACCINE DRIVE RAISES R146BN IN PLEDGES Official figures show Europe is the hardest-hit continent with 145 000 fatalities.

The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic topped a quarter of a million yesterday, with the US government predicting a further surge in fatalities as an international vaccine drive garnered $8 billion (about R146 billion) in pledges.

The dire forecast from the United States came as much of the Western world emerged from weeks of lockdown, with hopes that the virus may have peaked in Europe after nearly two months of confinement.

But the global progress did little to cool a war of words between the US and China – fuelled by American claims the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory, a theory the World Health Organisation (WHO) labelled “speculative”.

An AFP tally of official figures showed Europe is the hardest-hit continent with about 145 000 fatalities. The US has recorded close to 68 700. Together, they account for more than 85% of global deaths.

Since the disease first surfaced in China late last year, the number of confirmed cases has reached almost 3.6 million.

The grim figures were compounded on Monday by an internal government estimate in Washington that forecast the daily Covid-19 infection rate in the US could surge eight-fold to 200 000 per day by 1 June. The death toll could rise to 3 000.

A special telethon backed by the WHO but snubbed by Washington pulled in $8.1 billion to support international efforts to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus.

Leaders of major European powers, Japan, and Canada made the biggest pledges, along with philanthropists including Bill and Melinda Gates.

“This was an inspiring demonstration of global solidarity,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Seeming to defend its nonparticipation, the US state department insisted the United States is “leading” the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic and said it had spent more than $1 billion, together with US drug companies, to work on a vaccine.

As the country struggles to contain its outbreak, the White House has stepped up an offensive against China, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying there is “enormous evidence” the virus emerged in a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

That claim was rejected on Monday by the WHO, as well as top US epidemiologist and government advisor Anthony Fauci.

“Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,” he said.

US President Donald Trump has acknowledged that deaths would go beyond his earlier prediction of 60 000, saying: “We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100 000 people.”

His estimate underscored the tough, politically tinged debate over reopening, which pits concerns about a rising death toll against the need to restore national economies shattered by prolonged shutdowns. On Monday, US manufacturing giant General Electric announced it would cut an additional 10 000 jobs from its aviation sector as the pandemic decimates the industry.

The economic fallout in America prompted the US Treasury to announce it would borrow a record $3 trillion in the April-June period, largely to finance spending on virus relief programmes.

People across Europe basked in a return to the outdoors, mixed with a dose of trepidation about life ahead and the economic damage wreaked by lockdowns.

Workers banged away at construction sites in Rome, police handed out masks in Madrid and older children returned to school in Vienna.

Spain and Portugal made face masks mandatory on public transport as they further eased their lockdowns, while Slovenia, Poland and Hungary allowed public spaces and businesses to partially reopen. –

This was an inspiring demonstration of global solidarity