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Global infections cross 727,000

Deaths surpass 34,000 across the world


March 31, 2020 00:00:00


More than 727,080 cases of infection and 34,610 deaths have been recorded in 183 countries and territories since the epidemic started in China in December, according to an AFP tally compiled at 1100 GMT Monday based on official sources.

There were 3,208 deaths reported globally in the last day.

Italy has 10,779 deaths and has recorded 97,689 cases, Spain 7,340 deaths out of 85,195 cases, mainland China 3,304 deaths and 81,470 cases, Iran 2,757 deaths and 41,495 cases and France 2,606 fatalities and 40,174 cases.

Meanwhile, the postponed Olympic Games will now begin on July 23 next year and run until Aug 8, the head of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee said on Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to plan for them properly this year.

The Games were postponed last week and the delay is the first in the 124-year history of the modern Olympics. The postponement represents a huge blow for Japan, which invested $13 billion in the run-up to the event, and raised $3 billion from domestic sponsors.

Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, confirmed the new dates after he made the decision with the International Olympic Committee. Mori said the Paralympic Games would run from Aug 24-Sep. 5.

The global average fatality rate of the disease remains high at around 4.7 per cent, though that figure is expected to drop as testing widens. Countries with unusually high fatality rates include Italy, where around 11 per cent of reported cases have been fatal, and Spain, where 8 per cent of cases have been fatal.

China continues to report low numbers of new cases, with just 31 new infections on Sunday and only one locally contracted case. The country closed its borders to foreign passport holders on Saturday.

Globally, over 145,000 cases have been reportedly cured, around 20%. The recovery rate has reached 92.5% in China where the virus peaked over a month ago.

Johnson & Johnson plans to start human testing of its experimental coronavirus vaccine by September and make it ready for emergency use in early 2021, the drugmaker said on Monday.

J&J also committed more than $1 billion of investment along with US agency Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to co-fund vaccine research, expanding a previous collaboration.

Global efforts are underway to develop a vaccine for the virus that has killed over 34,000 worldwide, but experts have cautioned it could take over a year to have a vaccine ready.

US President Donald Trump has said federal coronavirus guidelines such as social distancing will be extended across the US until at least April 30.

He had previously suggested that they could be relaxed as early as Easter, which falls in mid-April.

"The highest point of the death rate is likely to hit in two weeks," Mr Trump said.

It is a measure of how things have evolved that Trump now describes an outcome of between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths in the United States as evidence of a "very good job" done in containing the fallout.

The u-turn by Trump came as the US death toll topped 2,460, according to a Reuters tally, with more than 141,000 cases, the most of any country in the world.

Trump said more details would be disclosed on Tuesday.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed at least 29 lives in India, with confirmed cases rising to 1,071, authorities said Monday.

At least 100 new cases were reported from across the country that took the total tally of coronavirus positive cases in Pakistan to 1600, while the death toll stood at 17, health officials confirmed on Monday. Pakistan by far has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in South Asia

Moscow on Monday started a lockdown of indefinite duration and several regional authorities followed a request from Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to make similar preparations.

Russia has so far reported 1,534 cases and eight deaths.

In Nigeria, where 97 cases have been declared, the cities of Abuja and Lagos enter total confinement on Monday evening for at least 14 days.

More than 3.4 billion people in nearly 80 countries or territories have been called on or forced by the authorities to stay at home, around 43 percent of the world population, according to a count based on an AFP database.

France continued to take delivery of masks via an airlift from China to cope with an acute shortage. After a first delivery on Sunday, France expects to receive a billion masks over 14 weeks.

The US Food and Drug Administration on Sunday authorised use of the anti-malarial drug chloroquine and its derivative hydroxychloroquine for use in hospitals as a treatment against the new coronavirus. It will not be available for the general public.

Oil prices plunged in Asian trade to 17-year lows, with the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate falling 5.3 percent, while international benchmark Brent crude was off 6.5 percent at $23.

Britain's deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries warned Sunday that life may not return to normal for six months or more, and that if emergency measures are lifted too quickly, the coronavirus virus could surge once again.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his staff have placed themselves in self-isolation, pending the results of tests for coronavirus, his office says.

It comes after an aide, Rivka Paluch, tested positive on Sunday.

Mr Netanyahu's office said the prime minister "has decided that he and his close staff will remain in isolation until the epidemiological investigation is completed".


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