The number of cases of the novel coronavirus across the globe is racing towards the 1 million- mark as the global death toll rises above 45,000. In India, the coronavirus cases have risen in the last 4 days, with health.
Tunisia has proposed a UN Security Council resolution that would call the coronavirus pandemic “a threat to humanity and to international peace and security” and call for an immediate global humanitarian cease-fire to respond to “the unprecedented threat posed by COVID-19.” The UN’s most powerful body has not addressed the pandemic sweeping the globe, but Dominican Republic Ambassador Jose Singer, the current council president, said Wednesday he expects members to meet on COVID-10 “for sure next week, or before.” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to brief the council at the request of Germany’s U.N. Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, diplomats said. Singer said negotiations on the resolution were taking place among the 15 council members.
America continues to wage an all-out war to defeat the “horrible” coronavirus, President Donald Trump has said, as the US reported over 5,000 deaths and more than 200,000 infections, the highest in the world, due to the fast-spreading COVID-19 pandemic. According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the number of Americans to have been infected by coronavirus stood at 214,000, and 5,093 had lost their lives from the deadly disease by Wednesday night. Globally, more than 930,000 people have been infected and 46,809 people have died due to coronavirus that originated from China in November-December. “America continues to wage all-out war to defeat the virus this horrible, horrible virus. You see how terrible it is, especially when you look at the numbers from yesterday,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. The number of infections keeps on rising with every passing day in the US, giving rise to a scary scenario, which Americans have not witnessed in decades. Members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force have predicted between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths, even with the mitigation measures including lockdown like situation across the country. Even as there is no national lockdown like India in the US, nearly 270 million of the 330 million population are forced into stay-in-home situation ranging from 30 days to 70 days. All schools, colleges and universities have been shut down, and America’s booming tourism and travel industry has come to a standstill. “We are attacking the virus on every front was social distancing, economic support for our workers, rapid medical intervention and very serious innovation and banning dangerous foreign travel that threatens the health of our people and we did that early, far earlier than anyone would’ve thought and way ahead of anybody else,” Trump said in his daily televised press conference from the White House on Wednesday. Early this week, Trump extended the mitigation measures, including social distancing, till April 30. The Trump administration has roped in car manufacturers, plane builders and other companies to make thousands of ventilators, required in the treatment of patients. In all, 11 companies are making ventilators on a war footing.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, reported 6,156 new cases of the coronavirus and 140 additional deaths, latest data by the Robert Koch Institute showed. The institute is a federal government agency responsible for disease monitoring and prevention.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte warned in a televised address that violators of the country’s lockdown measures could be shot dead, Reuters reported. “My orders to the police and military … if there is trouble and there’s an occasion that they fight back and your lives are in danger, shoot them dead,” Duterte reportedly said. “Is that understood? Dead. Instead of causing trouble, I will bury you,” he added.
Israeli health minister, Yaakov Litzman, and his wife were diagnosed with the coronavirus, reported Reuters. The couple are now in isolation, the report said. Litzman is an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has regularly appeared alongside the premier to give updates on the virus spread, according to the report. But in recent weeks, the health minister reportedly scaled back his public appearances.
Leave a comment