US tops Italy with most Covid-19 deaths

WASHINGTON, 12 April 2020:

The US yesterday moved past Italy as the country with the highest death toll from Covid-19 as fatalities reached 19,701, the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University said.

The virus has claimed 19,468 lives in Italy.

The US also leads the world in the number of active cases, with 503,000. Spain, where the number of confirmed infections stands at 161,852, is a distant second, followed by Italy (152,271).

Within the US, the epicentre of the pandemic is New York state – home of upwards of 40% of Americans who have died of the illness.

The global death toll has topped 100,000 and more than 1.6 million have been infected, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organisation.

Europe accounts for roughly half of all infections and though the outbreak began in China, the number of active cases in East Asia is a fairly modest 118,000, while 50,000 remain in serious or critical condition.

Nearly 390,000 people have recovered from the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump’s administration, which earlier estimated Covid-19 would cause anywhere from 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the US, revised its projection downward this week to 60,000.

Members of the White House coronavirus task force credit the more optimistic forecast to the success of the stay-at-home orders issued by 42 of the 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, covering around 316 million people.

Trump, who has repeatedly decried the economic cost of closing schools and businesses to contain the virus, said late last month that he hoped to re-open the country by Easter Sunday.

When it became clear that aspiration was not realistic, the president began to mention May 1 as a possible date to start easing restrictions.

During Friday’s news briefing by the task force, Trump sought to reassure Americans that he would guided by medical experts as well as by recommendations from the “Opening Our Country Council” he plans to install next week.

“I want to get it open as soon as possible. The facts are going to determine what I do,” the president said.

“I’m going to have to make a decision, and I only hope to God that it’s the right decision. But I would say, without question, it’s the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.”

The number of Covid-19 deaths climbed by 353 to 13,832, the fourth-largest total in the world behind the US Italy and Spain. France’s top public health official, Jérôme Salomon, said while the number of patients in hospital intensive care units was continuing to fall, restrictions on movement and activity need to remain in place.

Iran launched the production of rapid antigen tests as part of its plan to contain the coronavirus outbreak which has so far caused the death of 4,357 people and infected over 70,000.

– EFE