Global cases cross 1.5 mn, US set to become epicentre

WASHINGTON: The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic notched up another round of records on Thursday, with the number of confirmed infections surging past 1.5 million globally, less than a week after surpassing the 1 million mark, even as fatalities continued to rise in the United States and Europe.

The virus has now killed more than 89,000 people, sparing almost no country and tipping the world into a devastating economic crisis as global commerce shudders to a halt.

For the second straight day, the US grieved nearly 2,000 deaths on Wednesday, as flags flew at half-mast in hardest-hit New York, where the number of fatalties, at 4,571, have already crossed China’s 3,215 deaths.

The US now has 432,000 postive cases of Covid-19, and is on track for a grim milestone in the coming days -- passing Italy as the world’s epicenter of Covid-19 mortality. Deaths from the virus were at about 14,800 in the US as of Thursday and still accelerating, while Italy had more than 17,600 fatalities and the pace was beginning to slow.

There was also a record death toll of 938 over 24 hours in Britain, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a third night in intensive care, his condition is said to be “improving.”

France saw its total number of dead climb over 10,000 as the country prepared to extend its strict lockdown measures. Spain and Italy are still seeing hundreds of deaths per day despite tentative signs the disease may have peaked.

Spain reported fewer coronavirus deaths and new cases on Thursday in Europe’s secondmost deadly outbreak of the disease. There were 5,756 new i nf e c t i o ns i n t he 2 4 hours through Thursday, pushing the total above 150,000, according to health ministry data. The death t ol l r ose by 6 8 3 t o 1 5 , 2 3 8 , a smaller gain than Wednesday’s 757.

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