By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
In the past 24 hours, 865 people have died from coronavirus infection in the United States, the world’s super power and biggest economy.
And America is bracing up for more deaths to surpass the current 4,056 and notch between 100,000 and 240,000 as more than 100,000 people are tested a day all over the 50 states.
A total 188,592 cases have been recorded in the country, 177,285 of them active, but another 7,251 victims have recovered.
“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. We’re going to go through a very tough two weeks,” President Donal Trump said on March 31, setting expectations for a dire fortnight where death rates spike.
The death toll in the US has shot up beyond China’s and is now the global third highest after those of Italy and Spain.
Trump has implored Americans to follow social distancing and other guidelines, calling it “a matter of life and death”.
Last week, he had urged medical doctors from around the world familiar with treating coronavirus to apply for work visas in the US, and directed US embassies to grant the visas as a matter of urgency.
The US has a population of 327 million, about a third of the 512 million in the European Union, a region with the second highest number of deaths after Asia.
Fatalities in the EU have passed 30,000.
Live updates on worldmeter.info by 10.27 GMT on 01 April show the eight countries with the highest number of cases and over 1,000 deaths as
- Italy – cases (105,792), deaths (12,428)
- Spain – cases (102,136), deaths (9,053)
- US – cases (188,592), deaths (4,056)
- France – cases (52,128), deaths (3,523)
- China – cases (81,554), death (3,312)
- Iran – cases (47,593), deaths (3,036)
- UK – cases (25,150), deaths (1,789)
- The Netherlands – cases (12,595), deaths (1,039)
In Spain, infection rate falls, death rises
Despite apprehension in the US, the greatest concern is in Spain where a record daily death toll of 864 has just been counted.
More than 9,000 people have died in Spain, which is second only to Italy in fatalities caused by the virus.
Confirmed cases in the country have passed 100,000, but numbers show the infection rate continues to fall.
UN says COVID-19 biggest challenge since WW II
UN Secretary General António Guterres described the pandemic as the world’s biggest challenge since World War Two.
The warning comes amid dire predictions about the possible economic impact of measures imposed to fight the virus. A UN report estimates that up to 25 million jobs could be lost around the world as the result of the outbreak.
The number of confirmed cases around the world is now over 870,000, with more than 43,000 deaths, according to data compiled by John Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States.
The number of deaths in Spain on March 31 was marginally higher than the 849 announced the day before, and the country has now seen more than 800 deaths for five days in a row, the BBC reports.
But health officials believe the latest 12 percent increase in daily infections is further evidence that the rate has stabilised.
Spain has been in lockdown for over two weeks, with further restrictions on movement introduced two days ago.
However, health services in the hardest-hit areas, including Madrid and Catalonia, are still struggling, with shortages of medical equipment a particular problem.
In France, two high-speed trains have been equipped to move patients infected with Covid-19 out of the Paris region.
Italy remains the worst-affected country, with a total of 105,792 cases and 12,428 deaths reported up to March 31 evening, while Spain has 102,136 cases and 9,053 deaths.
However, Italy has seen the daily rise in infection rates fall to 2.8 per cent, well down on a few days ago.
The number of fatalities in the US has now topped 4,000, and Iran says Covid-19 – the disease caused by coronavirus – has claimed 3,000 lives.
Belgium said more than half its intensive care beds were occupied as it reported a rise of 123 deaths, bringing the country’s death toll to 828.
Meanwhile, the NATO military alliance said it remained in “a state of operational readiness” to defend the borders of its members despite the pandemic, although it had cancelled a number of exercises to prevent the spread of infection.
Threat of unprecedented global recession
“The new coronavirus disease is attacking societies at their core, claiming lives and people’s livelihoods,” Guterres said at the UN headquarters in New York.
It could trigger a recession “that probably has no parallel in the recent past”, he warned.
“Covid-19 is the greatest test that we have faced together since the formation of the United Nations,” he said, calling for “an immediate co-ordinated health response to suppress transmission and end the pandemic”.
Guterres urged industrialised nations to help those less developed, or potentially “face the nightmare of the disease spreading like wildfire”.
African finance ministers have appealed for $100 billion in emergency financing, with debt relief from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and the EU.
Manufacturing output in the UK in March hit its lowest point since 2012, and unemployment in Austria has soared 52.5 per cent on March last year to its highest level since 1946.
The crisis has not yet filtered through to Italian job levels with employment in February slightly down at 9.7 per cent.
Latest developments around the world
- The Netherlands has recorded a further 134 deaths, bringing the total to 1,173, but the rate of hospital admissions has fallen.
- Saudi Arabia has asked Muslims to delay booking their Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in July and August.
- France on March 31 recorded 499 new hospital deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 3,523. This is the highest daily rise in such deaths in France.
- Switzerland said late on March 31 it had seen 433 fatalities – and a further 12 were announced in the worst-hit area of Ticino on April 1.
- In the UK, a 13-year-old boy from London died, as the national toll rose 381 to 1,789. A 12-year-old girl who died in Belgium is believed to be the youngest victim of Covid-19 in Europe.
- In Russia, officials have recorded another seven deaths and a total of 24, with infections reaching 2,777.
- In Sweden, a number of ski resorts are to close before the Easter holidays as officials tighten the relatively loose restrictions imposed so far.
- China says it has taken steps to ensure the quality of its exports of medical supplies, after several European countries complained of defective Chinese-made test kits and masks.
- In India, the authorities are searching for hundreds of people who attended a religious event in the capital that has set off several Covid-19 clusters.
- South Africa has a high rate of cases (1,353) but low deaths (3).
- Nigeria has recorded 12 new cases, bringing its total to – cases (151) and deaths (2).
Lessons the world should learn
According to the BBC, the coronavirus pandemic is stress-testing all institutions – national and global – and many are struggling to perform effectively in almost unprecedented circumstances.
There is an unseemly competition for scarce medical equipment. But experts at the Rusi think-tank in London are already looking to the future.
They argue the world needs a whole new kind of institution to deal with so-called “black sky hazards” – natural or man-made disasters that are of such a scale that they disrupt the whole global system of interdependent supply chains on which human life depends.
The authors, Karin von Hippel and Randolph Kent, say there is no current organisation to coordinate the sharing of information and policy options in the way that the World Health Organisation covers public health.
They suggest a new body established by the UN, but not part of it, to provide a forum for promoting discourse and solutions for ever more entangled problems of global consequence.
The aim, clearly, is to be better prepared next time.