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HEALTH-VIRUS-WORLD FACTS
Coronavirus: latest global developments
PARIS, May 21, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Here are the latest developments in
the coronavirus crisis.
– Cases double in a month –
The number of officially recorded cases of the novel coronavirus
has doubled in one month, according to an AFP tally based on official
sources.
Infections now top five million, with surges in particular in
countries in Latin America.
Brazil leads the pack, logging the third-highest number of cases in
the world after the US and Russia. Peru, Mexico and Chile are also
seeing steady increases in infections.
– More than 328,000 deaths –
The pandemic has killed at least 328,220 people worldwide since it
surfaced in China late last year, according to an AFP tally at 1100
GMT on Thursday based on official sources.
There have been 5,012,630 officially recorded cases in 196
countries and territories.
The United States has recorded the most deaths at 93,439. It is
followed by Britain with 35,704, Italy with 32,330, France with 28,132
and Spain with 27,888.
– China says it is ‘transparent’ –
In a low-key rebuttal of the accusations by US President Donald
Trump of mass killing, China maintains it has “always had an open,
transparent and responsible attitude” as it battled the pandemic.
Speaking a day after Trump’s remarks, Chinese foreign ministry
spokesman Zhao Lijian tells a press briefing: “We have persisted in
speaking the truth, presenting the truth and speaking with reason,
doing our utmost to protect the lives and health of the people.”
– Saving Lufthansa –
German aviation giant Lufthansa confirms it is in talks with the
government over a nine-billion-euro ($10 billion) rescue that will see
Berlin take a massive stake in the coronavirus-stricken airline.
Under the plans, Berlin would take a 20-percent stake in the group,
topping it up with a convertible bond worth five percent plus one
share.
– Easyjet eases back –
British airline EasyJet says it will return to the skies on June
15, with “a small number of flights”, after grounding its entire fleet
at the end of March.
The initial schedule will involve mostly domestic flying in the UK
and France.
– Japan lifts emergency –
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifts a state of emergency in several big
cities in western Japan — Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo — and hints that
the measure will be removed nationwide as early as next week.
– Russia gold mine cluster –
A worker at Russia’s largest gold mine has died from the virus, the
operating company says, as troops set up quarantine camps to contain a
major outbreak at the facility.
More than 140 workers at the Olimpiada mine and processing plant in
the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk are currently hospitalised and
hundreds have tested positive.
– Astra gets $1 bl from US –
British pharmaceuticals group AstraZeneca secures more than one
billion dollars from the United States to help fund production of its
coronavirus vaccine.
AstraZeneca is partnering with University of Oxford to develop and
distribute a vaccine being trialled in the UK.
BSS/AFP/MRU/2033hrs