The coronavirus pandemic has infected around 600,000 people across the globe and claimed more than 24,000 lives worldwide, the World Health Organisation states.
From China, the virus spread quickly to the rest of the world, finding a new epicentre in Europe and the United States. For the first time for any country, US Covid-19 figures crossed 100,000 surpassing China’s record of over 81,000 Covid-19 cases.
Here are key Covid-19 developments from across the globe.
1. The United States continues to lead with 101,657 cases followed by Italy, China and Spain.
2. Covid-19 has already plunged the global economy into recession, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday.
3. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, UK health secretary Matt Hancock and chief medical officer Chris Whitty test positive.
4. Death toll in Italy surged by 919 to a total of 9,134. It’s the highest number of deaths in a day.
5. If the rate of growth in Covid-19 cases continues, the New York City area will suffer a more severe outbreak than those experienced in Wuhan, China or the Lombardy region of Italy, says a New York Times analysis. Death toll in New York jumped to 519, 40 per cent of US.
6. A New York hospital has started sharing on ventilators, putting two patients on each.
7. US President Donald Trump signed into law an unprecedented $2 trillion rescue plan Friday to salvage an economy crippled by coronavirus.
8. US President Donald Trump also used for the first time war-time powers under the Defense Production Act, under increasing pressure from state governors, to force a private company, General Motors, to ramp up production of ventilators needed to treat severely ill Covid-19 patients.
9. The US, France, Germany and other countries are engaged in hectic efforts to evacuate close to 14,000 of their nationals stranded in India following the suspension of commercial flights around the world due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
10. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called on counterpart Donald Trump to take “substantive actions” to improve bilateral ties on Friday as the two countries worst hit by the rampaging Covid-19 pandemic continued to trade barbs on, among other things, the origin of the virus.
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