News Desk :
Death from coronavirus globally hit 3,25,508 while infected 50,15,639 in 210 countries and territories and recovered 19,79,185, according to worldometer.
Death toll from Covid-19 in the United States reached 93,561 with total cases 15,71,328.
The US economy risks suffering “permanent damage” the longer the lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday.
American families and businesses are feeling the pain amid the nationwide shutdowns, Mnuchin told a Senate committee, but reopening the economy will need to be done with caution.
With the US death tally now over 90,000, some states have begun to reopen after two months of widespread closures, but the fear is many businesses may not survive.
Government data show more than 30 million jobs have been destroyed by the lockdowns, at least temporarily, even though Congress rushed to approve nearly $3 trillion in relief, including expanded unemployment benefits
“If a lockdown and shutdown continues indefinitely … there is the risk of permanent damage,” Mnuchin said, adding that “we’re conscious of the health issues” involved with reopening “and we want to do this in a balanced and safe way.”
He appeared remotely before the Senate Banking Committee in an unusual joint appearance with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to review how officials are using the over $2 trillion CARES act that Congress approved in late March.
Powell also has been sounding the alarm about the pandemic’s long-term impact both on ability of workers to return to the labor force as well as on small- and medium-sized businesses, which he called “the jobs machine of our great economy.”
The pandemic erased all the jobs created in the previous 10 years, making “the scope and speed of this downturn … without modern precedent.”
“If we allow unnecessary, avoidable insolvencies, because of effectively a natural disaster, that too, will destroy the work of many families and generations. It’ll weigh on the economy,” Powell said.
Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 162 on Tuesday, against 99 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases rose sharply to 813 from 451 on Monday.
The total death toll since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 now stands at
32,169 the agency said, the third highest in the world after those of the United States and Britain.
The number of confirmed cases amounts to 226,699 the sixth highest global tally behind those of the United States, Russia, Spain, Britain and Brazil.
People registered as currently carrying the illness fell to 65,129 from 66,553 the day before.
There were 716 people in intensive care on Tuesday, down from 749 on Monday, maintaining a long-running decline. Of those originally infected, 129,401 were declared recovered against 127,326 a day earlier.
The agency said 2.0 million people have so far been tested for the virus, against 1.959 million on Monday, out of a population of around 60 million.
Spain’s daily coronavirus death toll rose on Tuesday to 83 from 59 in the previous 24-hour period, the health ministry said.
The overall number of fatalities was now 27,778, the ministry said, while the number of diagnosed cases rose to 232,037 cases.
