US and Spanish deaths surge as world coronavirus toll breaks 50,000

The number of confirmed coronavirus deaths accelerated past 50,000 on Friday as the United States, Spain and Britain grappled with their highest tolls yet and the world economy took a massive hit.

The human scale of the pandemic has never been more stark – experts warning that more than one million cases of COVID-19 disease confirmed globally is probably only a small proportion of total infections as testing is still not widely available.

The United States accounts for around a quarter of confirmed cases but Europe is far from being out of danger – Spain reported more than 900 deaths in 24 hours on Friday, for the second day running.

The virus has now killed more 10,000 people across Spain, but not 29-year-old Javier Lara, who has just returned home after being treated in an overburdened intensive care unit.

“I was panicking that my daughter would get infected. When I started showing symptoms, I said I wouldn’t hold her or go near her, or change her nappies,” he told AFP, describing his fear for his eight-week-old after facing death at the “worst moment in his life”.

While Italy still leads the world in fatalities, France, Belgium and Britain have also been hard hit. The UK government is rushing to build field hospitals after a one-day toll of 569.

The battle waged by public health experts across the world ebbed and flowed on Friday, with German experts saying the rate of new infections is slowing thanks to lockdown measures, but Asian city-state Singapore confirming it would close schools and workplaces to fend off a possible upsurge in cases.

– China’s 14 ‘martyrs’ –

The world economy has been pummelled by the virus and associated lockdowns, with more than half the population of the planet under some kind of stay-at-home order.

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Some 10 million people in the United States lost their jobs in the last two weeks of March, and economists warn it will get worse.

“No words for this,” said Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics. “Total layoffs between the March and April payroll surveys look destined to reach perhaps 16 to 20 million, consistent with the unemployment rate leaping to 13 to 16 per cent. In one month.”

Things were no better in Europe, where analysts from IHS Markit warned that business activity in the 19-nation eurozone had suffered its worst crunch ever recorded, and the central bank of eurozone member Ireland saying its output could be slashed by 8.3 per cent this year.

Financial ratings agency Fitch predicted both the US and eurozone economies would shrink this quarter by up to 30 per cent and the Asian Development Bank warned on Friday the global economy could take a $4.1 trillion hit – equivalent to five per cent of worldwide output.

World leaders have announced huge financial aid packages to deal with the crisis and the World Bank has approved a plan to roll out $160 billion over 15 months.

The outbreak began last year in China, which announced a day of national mourning on Saturday for those who died fighting against the disease. Fourteen deceased frontline workers will be celebrated as “martyrs” of the epidemic.

(AFP)

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE