News Desk :
Total deaths from Covid-19 soared globally 3,58,017 while infected 58,18,989 in 210 countries and territories and recovered 25,21,937, according to worldometer.
US deaths from the novel coronavirus topped 1,02,116 on Wednesday with total cases 17,46,335 even as the daily average death toll declines, businesses reopen and Americans emerge from lockdowns across the country.
About 1,400 Americans have died on average each day in May, down from the peak of the outbreak in April when 2,000 people a day died on average.
The US death toll is higher than fatalities from the seasonal flu going back to the 1957-1958 season, when 116,000 died. In about three months, Covid-19 deaths exceed the number of Americans killed in the Korean War, Vietnam War and the US conflict in Iraq from 2003-2011 – combined.
The coronavirus has killed more people than the AIDS epidemic did from 1981 through 1989.
Total US coronavirus cases are over 1.7 million with some southern states seeing new cases rising in the past week, according to a Reuters analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the outbreak.
Of the top 20 most severely affected countries, the United States ranks eighth based on deaths per capita, according to a Reuters tally. The United States has three fatalities per 10,000 people. Belgium is first with eight
deaths per 10,000, followed by Spain, the United Kingdom and Italy, according to the Reuters analysis.
Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 117 on Wednesday, against 78 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases climbed to 584 from 397 on Tuesday.
The total death toll since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 now stands at 33,072, the agency said, the third highest in the world after those of the United States and Britain.
The number of confirmed cases amounts to 231,139, the sixth highest global tally behind those of the United States, Brazil, Russia, Spain and Britain.
People registered as currently carrying the illness fell to 50,966 from 52,942 the day before.
There were 505 people in intensive care on Wednesday, down from 521 on Tuesday, maintaining a long-running decline. Of those originally infected, 147,101 were declared recovered against 144,658 a day earlier.
The agency said 2.291 million people have now been tested for the virus, against 2.253 million as of Tuesday, out of a population of around 60 million.
Spain has registered 27,118 deaths from the coronavirus, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, just one more than the previous day, but countrywide mortality data suggest the actual toll could be much higher.
The ministry said 39 deaths were reported over the last seven days, while a total of 236,769 cases have been detected since the beginning of the outbreak.
But a project by the National Epidemiology Centre, which compares deaths recorded across the country’s civil registries with historical averages, suggests 55% more people died than expected between March 13 and May 22, equivalent to more than 43,000 extra deaths.
“Clearly some of the excess can be attributed to coronavirus but establishing cause of death is very complicated, especially in people with underlying health conditions,” Dr Joan Ramon Villalbi, a board member of the Spanish Society for Public Health and Sanitary Administration, told Reuters.
Pinpointing COVID-19’s true toll has proved problematic for authorities. On Monday, the government revised down its official death count by nearly 2,000 after removing duplicate cases and people who were mistakenly recorded as dying from the virus.
It expects further fluctuations in the coming days as authorities apply a new methodology for logging cases and deaths.
Spaniards fell silent across the nation at midday to mark the start of the mourning period for all the victims.
