Virus exacts terrible toll ● Deaths surpass 250,000 as billions pledged in vaccine drive
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 $8bn (R146.8bn) 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 disease 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 eightfold to 200,000 a day by June 1, and the death toll could rise to 3,000.
A special telethon backed by the WHO but snubbed by Washington pulled in $8.1bn 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 a powerful and inspiring demonstration of global solidarity,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The US State Department insisted the US was leading the global response to the pandemic, and said it had spent more than $1bn (R18.4bn) 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 Monday by the WHO as well as top US epidemiologist and government adviser 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 will 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 said 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 (R55-trillion) in the AprilJune period, largely to finance spending on virus relief programmes.
In Australia, officials said the economy was losing A$4bn (R47bn) every week the nation’s virus shutdown continues, with gross domestic product forecast to plunge 10% in the June quarter.
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.
“We are all afraid,” a masked Cristina Jimenez, 31, said in Madrid.
“Who hasn’t lost their job already may lose it in the next few months.
“But what is important is that we are well. With work, you can always find another.”
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.
Africa’s biggest city, Lagos, got back to work at the end of a five-week virus shutdown, while in India police waded in to separate people jostling to buy alcohol for the first time in 40 days. —