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HEALTH-VIRUS-WORLD FACTS
Coronavirus: latest global developments
PARIS, May 6, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Here are the latest developments in the
coronavirus crisis:
– More than 257,000 dead –
At least 257,687 people have died of the novel coronavirus since the
epidemic surfaced in China late last year, according to an AFP tally at 1100
GMT Wednesday based on official sources.
There have been more than 3,675,869 officially recorded cases spanning 195
countries and territories.
The United States is the worst-hit country, with 71,078 deaths out of more
than 1.2 million cases. Britain follows with 29,427, though there is some
debate over the figures there.
Figures compiled by British regional health agencies put the number of
fatalities at over 32,000, which include cases where COVID-19 is only
suspected to be the cause and people who tested positive.
Italy follows with 29,315 deaths, Spain with 25,857 and France with 25,531.
– Back to school in Wuhan –
Senior school students in 121 institutions in the Chinese city of Wuhan —
ground zero of the pandemic — return to class, wearing masks and walking in
single file past thermal scanners.
Only the oldest students in the province of Hubei have returned to school –
– vocational students and seniors due to take the make-or-break university
entrance exams.
Return dates have generally not been confirmed for junior and middle school
students.
– Nearly normal in South Korea –
South Korea returns largely to normal as workers go back to offices, and
museums and libraries reopen under eased social distancing rules.
MORE/AFP/MRU/1920hrs
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– Recession ‘of historic proportions’ –
The EU forecasts that the eurozone economy would contract by a staggering
7.7 percent in 2020, calling it a “recession of historic proportions”.
The 19-member single currency zone would rebound by 6.3 percent in 2021,
the EU says, but in a recovery that would be felt unevenly across the
continent.
Italy for example would see a cataclysmic recession of 9.5 percent in 2020,
and only a 6.5 percent recovery next year, according to data from the
European Commission.
– China hits back at lab leak claims –
China dismisses claims made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the
virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, saying he “doesn’t have any” evidence.
Beijing’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva says China will not prioritise
inviting international experts in to investigate the source of the virus
until after the pandemic is beaten.
– Airbnb slashes staff –
Home-sharing platform Airbnb says it will slash one fourth of its workforce
— some 1,900 people — due to the collapse of the travel industry.
– Celebs call for radical change –
A host of celebrities and scientists including Madonna, Robert de Niro and
a clutch of Nobel Prize winners sign an open letter calling for radical
change in the world rather than “a return to normal” after lockdowns.
Hollywood stars Cate Blanchett, Jane Fonda and Marion Cotillard are also
among the 200 signatories of the letter published in French daily Le Monde,
pleading for an end to unbridled consumerism and a “radical transformation”
of economies to help save the planet.
BSS/AFP/MRU/1920hrs