US death toll crosses 250K
washington — More than a quarter million people have died from Covid-19 in the United States, the Johns Hopkins University tally recorded on Wednesday, marking a bleak new milestone for the pandemic.
The US, which has now registered 250,029 fatalities, has by far the highest national death toll, ahead of Brazil with 166,699 deaths, India with 130,993 deaths and Mexico with 99,026.
President Donald Trump has consistently downplayed the threat of the virus, seldom wearing a mask and holding large, packed rallies while campaigning for the November 3 election that he lost to Joe Biden.
Social distancing, mask wearing and other measures are followed unevenly in some parts of the US despite a surge in recent cases and deaths.
The country now routinely records over 1,000 deaths and 150,000 new cases every day. New York City will again close public schools this week. —
new york — US coronavirus deaths passed a quarter of a million people on Thursday as New York announced it would close schools to battle a rise in infections and anti-restriction protests in Europe turned violent.
America has now registered 256,311 fatalities, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University, by far the highest reported national death toll.
US states and cities were imposing a raft of new restrictions, including home confinement, the closure of indoor dining and a limit on gatherings as cases soar across the country, with more than 157,950 new infections recorded over the past 24 hours on Wednesday.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city’s 1,800 public schools would revert to remote learning beginning Thursday after the Big Apple recorded a seven-day average positivity rate of three percent.
“We must fight back the second wave of Covid-19,” he said.
Europe meanwhile remains the hardest-hit region, accounting for 46 per cent of new global cases and 49 per cent of deaths last week, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Its figures additionally showed the only region where cases and deaths declined last week was Southeast Asia.
Worldwide, more than 1.36 million people have died of Covid-19 and over 56.6 million have been reported infected with the virus since it first sur
faced in China late last year, according to a tally from official sources.
In Switzerland, one of the worst-hit countries in Europe, the Swiss Society for Intensive Care Medicine (SSMI) warned that intensive care units “are practically all full.”
More beds have been added, and the Swiss military has been called in to support efforts in several areas. Many European countries are extending heavy restrictions on daily life in attempts to curb the spread of the virus.
A French government spokesman said authorities are unlikely to lift a partial lockdown any time soon while Portugal’s government was preparing to extend measures for two more weeks.
In Hungary, a state of emergency that enables partial lockdown measures has now been extended until February.
In Berlin, police fired water cannon to disperse thousands of unmasked protesters demonstrating against tightened restrictions. —