News Desk :
The total death toll from coronavirus reached 1,56,864 while infected 22,68,011 in 210 countries and territories around the world and recovered 5,81,915, according to worldometer.
The latest death toll from coronavirus reached 37,175 in the US while total cases 7,10,272 .New York state accounts for nearly half those deaths.
Better-than-expected social distancing practices have led an influential research model to lower its projected US coronavirus death toll by 12%, while predicting some states may be able to safely begin easing restrictions as early as May 4.
The University of Washington’s predictive model, regularly updated and often cited by state public health authorities and White House officials, projected on Friday that the virus will take 60,308 US lives by Aug 4, down from 68,841 deaths forecast earlier in the week.
Strict adherence to stay-at-home orders and business closures imposed by governors in 42 of the 50 US states over the past four weeks to curb the spread of the virus was cited as a key factor in the improved outlook.
“We are seeing the numbers decline because some state and local governments, and, equally important, individuals around the country, have stepped up to protect their families, their neighbours, and friends and co-workers by reducing physical contact,” said Christopher Murray, director of the university’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
The institute said states with low death rates, including Vermont, West Virginia, Montana and Hawaii, could safely relax some restrictions on May 4, so long as they continued to limit social gatherings. States moving to ease stay-at-home measures also are urged to institute widespread testing for infections and to isolate anyone testing positive, while tracing their close contacts and quarantining them.
Other largely rural or sparsely populated states, including Iowa, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Utah, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, may need to wait until late June or early July, the institute said. It also recommended that states reopen only if they have infection rates of less than one in 1 million people.
The model’s latest forecast for the first time incorporated cell phone data that suggested people began having less contact with one another earlier than was previously assumed, especially in the South, as a growing number of states imposed social distancing and stay-home orders.
The model’s earlier assumptions were based on state policies without considering the public’s reaction to them.
Friday marked the fourth consecutive day that the number of COVID-19 deaths nationwide grew by more than 2,000 in a 24-hour period.
Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy rose by 575 on Friday, up from 525 the day before, while the number of new cases declined slightly and scientists warned that infections were now mainly happening among family members.
The daily tally of new cases stood at 3,493, down from a previous 3,786, with both deaths and infections extending the broadly stable situation in place over the last 12 days.
This plateau is considerably lower than the peaks reached around the end of March, but the downtrend has not proceeded as was widely hoped in a country that has been in lockdown for almost six weeks.
“Probably most of the infections that have occurred since the lockdown have occurred within families,” Giovanni Rezza, a director of Italy’s top health body, the Superior Health Institute (ISS), told a news conference.
Nuclear physicist Paolo Branchini, who has been focusing on the trend of cases and deaths in Italy, told daily Corriere della Sera on Friday that the lockdown initially put a lid on infections but had now “exhausted its beneficial effect”.
Branchini said that because the main source of infections was now within families, the only way to reduce deaths and cases further was to put all people who tested positive in dedicated centres away from their relatives.
The official death toll since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 has risen to 22,745, the Civil Protection Agency said, the second highest in the world after that of the United States.
However, the Italian authorities acknowledge that the true number of fatalities is much higher.
The Superior Health Institute said a survey on a sample of nursing homes suggested more than 40% of residents who died from Feb. 1 to April 15 had either tested positive for the new coronavirus or had symptoms consistent with the disease.
The government has said its tough restrictions on movement and the closure of most businesses will continue at least until May 3, but there is not yet any clear plan over to what extent, or how gradually, it will then be lifted.
In the meantime, some of Italy’s 20 regions are threatening to take autonomous action.
Luca Zaia, the head of the northern Veneto region which has made particular progress in bringing the outbreak under control, said on Friday he wanted to relax restrictions before May 3.
“The lockdown doesn’t exist anymore,” Zaia told reporters, in reference to the government having allowed a few types of business to reopen over the last week.
In response, the chief of the southern Campania region around Naples, Vincenzo De Luca, said if northern regions did not respect all the curbs in place, Campania would “close its borders” and refuse entry to non-residents for any reason.
The outbreak remains heavily concentrated in the northern regions of Lombardy, around the financial capital Milan, and neighbouring Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna.
The number of officially confirmed cases in Italy on Friday totalled 172,434, the third highest global tally behind those of the United States and Spain.
Spain’s death toll from coronavirus has passed the 20,000 mark but parents and regional government leaders are still calling for children to be let out of confinement in a growing ‘Free our children!’ campaign.
Communities such as Catalonia and the Basque Country are leading the plea to the Spanish Government, saying the mental health of families is being put in danger because of the strict curfew rules which were imposed on March 14th.
They want children to be allowed to play or exercise outside, even if they have to wear masks and abide to strict ‘time slots’ for a limited amount of time and space.
On Saturday, officials said there have now been 20,043 coronavirus deaths, up by 565 since Friday.
There have now been 192,920 infections since the crisis began, up by 4,852 from Friday’s figure of 188,068.
The call is being backed by the acting Spanish Ombudsman, Francisco Fernández Marugán and will be put to Spain’s Prime Minister in the next few days.
The communities involved want the ban on children to be lifted when the next phase of the State of Emergency comes to a close on April 26th.
Pedro Sanchez has already indicated that the order is likely to be extended until May 10th.
Catalonia wants children to be able to play with limited time slots but they would have to wear masks.
Ombudsman Marugán agrees some kind of easement should be put in place for children, with space and time limits and in a controlled manner as is already happening in other countries.
‘This would be a positive move provided there are no technical objections,’ he said.
