Virus deaths top 800,000

Countries ramp up safety measures to stem a new wave

PARIS: The global death toll from the new coronavirus has surpassed 800,000, according to an AFP count, with numerous countries ramping up restrictions in an effort to battle an eruption of new cases.

Western Europe, particularly Spain, Italy Germany and France, has been hit with infection levels not seen in many months, sparking fears of a fully-fledged second wave.

And in Asia, South Korea became the latest country to announce it would boost restrictions to try to stem a new outbreak, after largely bringing the virus under control.

Across the world, the number of deaths has doubled on Saturday to just over 800,000 since June 6, with 100,000 fatalities in the last 17 days alone, while more than 23 million cases have been reported.

Latin America is the region the most affected, while more than half the global fatalities have been reported in the hardest-hit United States, Brazil, Mexico and India.

The surging numbers come after the UN health agency said on Friday that the world should be able to rein in the pandemic in less than two years.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sought to draw favourable comparisons with the flu pandemic of 1918 which cost the lives of as many as 50 million people.

“We have a disadvantage of globalisation, closeness, connectedness, but an advantage of better technology, so we hope to finish this pandemic before less than two years,” he said.

The WHO also recommended children over 12 years old now wear masks in the same situations as adults as the use of face coverings helps stop the virus spread.

With no usable vaccine yet available, the most prominent tool governments have at their disposal is to confine their populations or enforce social distancing.

South Korea announced ramped up restrictions on Saturday, after 332 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours – highest daily figure since early March.

Italy – once the European epicentre of the virus – said on Saturday it had registered more than 1,000 new infections in the past 24 hours, the highest level since the end of a punishing lockdown in May.

The story is similar across Spain, Germany and France.

Lebanon launched two weeks of measures including curfews, as the country is still dealing with the fallout from a huge explosion in Beirut that killed scores of people. — AFP