News Desk :
The death toll from coronavirus jumped to 1,93,779 with infections of 27,66,184 people in 210 countries and territories around the world and recovered 7,64,126 , according to worldometer.
The total death toll in the United States has reached 50,243 amid over 8,86,709 cases.
At least 3,332 new coronavirus deaths were reported in the United States in a 24-hour period, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, one of the deadliest days since the outbreak began.
26 million people have sought US jobless aid in the past five weeks since the coronavirus hit. About one in six American workers have lost their jobs, by far the worst string of layoffs since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The US House of Representatives has passed a nearly $500bn spending package to help businesses and hospitals.
More than 190,000 people have died due to the pandemic, including 50,000 in the US, with 2.7 million infected globally, out of whom almost 750,000 have recovered.US lawmakers covered their faces with masks and voted in small groups to approve a $483 billion stimulus plan, on top of the $2.2 trillion package already enacted.
The money will back small businesses on the
brink of bankruptcy, and hard-pressed hospitals, as the American economy reels with more than 26 million people losing their jobs since the pandemic hit.
Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 464 on Thursday, against 437 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, but the daily tally of new infections declined to 2,646 from 3,370 on Wednesday.
The total official death toll since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 now stands at 25,549, the agency said, the second highest in the world after that of the United States.
The number of confirmed cases was 189,973, the third highest global tally behind those of the United States and Spain.
People registered as currently carrying the illness fell to 106,848 from 107,699 on Wednesday, a fourth consecutive daily decline.
There were 2,267 people in intensive care on Thursday against 2,384 on Wednesday, maintaining a long-running decline. Of those originally infected, 57,576 were declared recovered against 54,543 a day earlier.
For the first time, the civil protection unit published data on how many people had been tested for the virus so far in Italy, putting the number at 1.053 million, out of a population of around 60 million.
The agency had previously only issued data on the number of swabs carried out. This is a much higher figure – 1.58 million up to Thursday – because many people are tested two or three times.
Spain’s daily coronavirus deaths fell to the lowest in more than a month on Friday, with 367 registered in the previous 24 hours, as the government prepared criteria to ease one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns from next month.
The new deaths were just a 1.7% increase overall, down from 440 the previous day, and the lowest since March 21, underlining optimism that Spain’s epidemic was past the worst.
However, with 22,524 deaths in total, it still has the world’s third-highest tally after the United States and Italy.
Cases rose over 6,700 to 219,764 from the day before, but the rise in new infections based on more specific testing was much lower, at 2,796, meaning those cured, at 3,105, surpassed new infections for the first time.
“We hope the trend will continue in the future, which will depend mainly on how we all behave as we gradually have fewer restrictions on mobility,” health emergency coordinator Fernando Simon told a news briefing.
According to Cadena SER radio, the government started to outline thresholds on Friday for further easing of the economically-crippling lockdown from May for regions with the lowest contagion rates and least burdened intensive units (ICU).
For restrictions to be lifted, there must be no more than two daily cases per 100,000 people in an area, or COVID-19 patients must occupy no more than half of ICU beds.
The government has already taken some steps to relax the lockdown, such as allowing construction workers back and letting children take walks outside from this weekend, but broader restrictions will not be eased until late May.
Anticipating more people outside, the government started capping prices of protective surgical masks at 0.96 euros ($1.04) a piece, and of disinfecting gels and solutions at 0.015-0.021 euros per millilitre depending on packaging volume.
In Catalonia, Spain’s second hardest-hit region, the regional administration’s separatist leader Quim Torra criticised the central government’s handling of the epidemic, saying it would have worked out better “without impositions”.
He also called for more financial aid.
Torra urged all Catalan political forces to meet and unite policy over the epidemic, accepting a proposal from the opposition Socialists and centre-right Ciudadanos.
He was speaking to just a handful of lawmakers physically present in the Catalan parliament, which was set to approve later on Friday a regional budget for the first time in three years.
