News Desk :
A total of 2,13,707 people died from coronavirus globally with total cases reached 3,099,990 in 210 countries and territories while recovered 9,44,033, according to worldometer.
As of late Monday, the United States recorded an overall coronavirus death toll of 56,808 with 988,197 confirmed infections, according to wordometer.
The new projection says 74,073 people in the United States will die from COVID-19, within an estimated range of 56,563 to 130,666 deaths. The previous model, created by researchers at the University of Washington, had the number at 67,641 deaths. “At least part of this increase is due to many states experiencing flatter and thus longer
epidemic peaks,” the researchers wrote. States have also seen deaths not fall as quickly following a peak.
President Donald Trump said he takes no responsibility for a spike in cases of people misusing disinfectants after he wondered aloud last week about possibly injecting them as a treatment for the coronavirus.
When asked Monday about the increase of people in some states ingesting disinfectants Trump answered: “I can’t imagine why.” When pressed about whether he takes any responsibility, Trump said, “No, I don’t.”
A new poll from the Washington Post and University of Maryland shows that roughly two-thirds of Americans support restrictions on businesses and public gatherings in their states. Roughly 1 in 5 say the restrictions do not go far enough. Similarly, about two-thirds of Americans said they support President Donald Trump’s decision to temporarily halt immigration amid the virus outbreak. Republicans overwhelming support the measure and even about half of Democrats say they do, too.
The poll also found that about 60% of the country is very or somewhat worried about getting the virus and becoming seriously ill. The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 26,977 lives in locked-down Italy, bringing the total number of infections, fatalities and recoveries so far to 199,414, according to the latest official tally released on Monday.
The past 24 hours saw a total of 333 new fatalities, compared to 260 a day earlier, Civil Protection Department chief Angelo Borrelli, who serves as extraordinary commissioner for the coronavirus emergency, told a televised press conference in late afternoon.
Meanwhile, a total of 1,696 new recoveries pushed up to 66,624 the total number of cured patients since the pandemic first broke out in the northern Lombardy region.
Total active infections stood at 105,813, a decrease of 290 compared to the previous day.
The total number of infections, fatalities and recoveries stood at 199,414, which is 1,739 higher than the caseload on Sunday. The downward trend in new infections detected since last week continued on Monday.
The number of COVID-19 patients in serious and critical conditions also kept declining, with 1,956 people currently in intensive care, down by 53 compared to Sunday, and 20,353 people hospitalized, down by 1,019.
Up to 83,504 people are under home isolation because they are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. The figure equates to 79 percent of all active cases.
Borrelli said private donations to a special bank account-opened by the Civil Protection Department and devoted to the COVID-19 emergency-have exceeded 141.4 million euros (153 million U.S. dollars).
Of these solidarity funds, over 79 million euros (85.5 million U.S. dollars) have been spent so far to purchase ventilators for ICUs and protective gear for medical staff, according to Borrelli.
At the same press conference, Italy’s National Health Institute (ISS) President Silvio Brusaferro spoke about the strategy to adopt in the next weeks to keep the pandemic under control, once the country relaxes the lockdown in place from March 10 to May 3.
“The (epidemiological) trend-beyond some possible drops linked to the weekend, when a lesser number of swabs is usually carried out-shows a progressive decrease in the number of deaths and of infections,” Brusaferro told reporters, adding “However, this means the virus is still circulating in our territory.”
“This factor brings us to believe that, as we start to open cautiously (business activities) over the next few days, we will have to monitor very carefully the number of infections, and all of the other indicators, such as the intensive care beds used (by COVID-19 patients),” the ISS chief explained.
Italy entered into a national lockdown on March 10 to contain the pandemic. The lockdown, expected to last until May 3, will be followed by a so-called “Phase Two,” which involves the gradual resumption of social, economic and productive activities.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Sunday that beginning May 4, the manufacturing, construction, and wholesale sectors can resume work. Following them are retailers, museums, galleries, and libraries on May 18 and bars, restaurants, hairdressers and beauty salons on June 1. All businesses will have to follow rigorous workplace safety protocols.
On Monday afternoon, Conte paid a visit to Lombardy, the country’s worst-hit region.
The prime minister met with local authorities at Milan’s prefecture, and then visited Bergamo and Brescia, the two most affected provinces in Lombardy.
In a short briefing from Milan, Conte warned citizens again that maintaining interpersonal safety distance would be crucial once the full lockdown will be eased, in order not to allow the pandemic surge again.
“It is a phase to face with caution … we cannot waste all our sacrifices,” Conte said.
Meanwhile, a day after Conte confirmed schools across the country would not reopen until September, Italian President Sergio Mattarella addressed students in a video message, saying “Closed schools represent a wound for everyone, but first and foremost for all of you, and for your teachers.”
He said the extended closure was affecting more than 8 million pupils enrolled in the country’s school system, “something unbelievable, which has never happened before in the history of education.”
Yet, this hard experience might also provide an opportunity to grow, according to Mattarella.
“The world will no longer be as before (the pandemic), and yet nobody really can tell us what it will be like,” the head of state said.
“How the world will be tomorrow actually depends much on you, who are students today … from your ability to think it, plan it, and live it. From your commitment.”
Spain’s daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to 301 on Tuesday, far below record highs of three times as much in early April, which should allow the government to set a framework for regions to start phasing out one of Europe’s toughest lockdowns.
Since March 14, most Spaniards have only been allowed out for grocery shopping or to go to the doctor, with the shutdown nearly paralysing the economy and the labour market.
The health ministry said the total fatalities since the start of the outbreak rose to 23,822, with the daily increase coming down from Monday’s 331 and also well below record highs of over 900 earlier in the month.
The number of diagnosed cases rose to 210,773 from 209,465 on Monday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the National Statistics Institute said first-quarter unemployment rate rose to 14.4% from 13.8% in the preceding three months, even though the data only partially reflected the impact of the lockdown that began two weeks before the end of the quarter.
“The figure of course is devastating,” Antonio Garamendi, head of the CEOE business association, told RNE radio. “The important thing is to resume our activities in order to really avoid this drama that we are living.”
According to forecasts by the Bank of Spain, the coronavirus crisis could push the unemployment rate up to 21.7% this year, with the economy contracting as much as 12.4%.
The cabinet was meeting on Tuesday to assess a range of parameters that should allow to further ease the restrictions in the regions with the lowest prevalence rates of the disease.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was due to outline the plan later in the day.
Spain recently began to soften the lockdown as it reined in the infection rate.
In the most significant step yet, on Sunday children under 14 were granted one hour of daily supervised outdoor activity. Spaniards are expected to be allowed out to exercise alone from May 2 if the coronavirus toll continues to fall.
