Number of extreme poor ‘could rise to 1.1 billion’
The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic could plunge an extra 395 million people into extreme poverty and increase the total number of those living on less than $1.90 a day worldwide to more than one billion, according to a new report.
The document – published by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) – played through a number of scenarios, taking into account the World Bank’s various poverty lines – from extreme poverty, defined as living on $1.90 a day or less, to higher poverty lines of living on less than $5.50 a day.
Under the worst scenario – a 20 percent contraction in per capita income or consumption – the number of those living in extreme poverty could rise to 1.12 billion. The same contraction, applied to the $5.50 threshold among upper-middle-income countries, could see more than 3.7 billion people – or just over half the world’s population – live below this poverty line.
Coronavirus patients ‘treated worse than animals’: India court
As deaths caused by the novel coronavirus disease continue to mount, India’s top court has expressed outrage over the way the patients are being handled by the hospitals and authorities.
India has overtaken Britain to became the fourth highest in the world with 297,535 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 8,498 deaths [Manish Swarup/AP]
“Covid-19 patients are [being] treated worse than animals,” said the Supreme Court, as it issued notices to the federal and state governments on the “deplorable condition”, Indian media reports said on Friday.
Wife of Ukraine president tests positive for Covid-19
Olena, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Friday she had tested positive for coronavirus but her husband and their two children had tested negative.
“Today I received a positive test for coronavirus. Unexpected news. Especially considering that I and my family continue to follow all the rules – masks, gloves, a minimum of contacts,” Zelenska wrote on Facebook.
Pakistani PM warns more deaths of coronavirus
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned citizens that the number of deaths from the coronavirus will continue to rise in the country, as the death toll hit a single day record of 107 on Thursday.
Addressing the nation, Khan continued to rule out imposing any widespread lockdown, as per the World Health Organization’s advice, saying that instead there would be greater monitoring of social distancing and hygiene directives, with businesses that do not comply being shut down.
Pakistan saw 6,397 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, taking its total tally to 125,933.
Famed Thai temple bars foreigners entry
One of Thailand’s major tourist attractions is barring entry to foreigners, professing fear that they could spread the coronavirus.
Signs seen Thursday morning at the main gate of Wat Pho, the Buddhist temple adjacent to the Grand Palace in Bangkok, said in English: “Open for Thai only,” “ONLY THAI PEOPLE,” and “NOW NOT OPEN FOR FOREIGNERS.”
The temple is one of the country’s grandest, with murals and gold trim covering many surfaces, but is best known for housing the 46-metre-long (151-foot-long) Reclining Buddha, which is covered in gold leaf.
Hundreds of suspected child virus deaths in Indonesia
Hundreds of children in Indonesia are believed to have died from Covid-19, giving the Southeast Asian country one of the world’s highest rates of child deaths from the new coronavirus.
Since Indonesia announced its first coronavirus case in March, it has recorded 2,000 deaths, the highest in East Asia outside of China.
A total of 715 people under 18 had contracted the coronavirus, while 28 had died, according to a health ministry document dated May 22 and reviewed by Reuters news agency.
Indonesia also recorded more than 380 deaths among 7,152 children classified as “patients under monitoring”, meaning people with severe coronavirus symptoms for which there is no other explanation but whose tests have not confirmed the infection.
“Covid-19 proves that we have to fight against malnutrition,” Achmad Yurianto, a senior health ministry official, told Reuters.
