CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus Death toll crosses 5,000

Since the novel coronavirus first emerged in late December, more than 135,640 cases have been recorded in 122 countries and territories, killing 5,043 people, according to an AFP tally compiled at 13:00 GMT on Friday based on official sources.

The worst affected countries are mainland China, with 3,176  deaths, Italy, 1,016 deaths, and 514 in Iran, the three countries with the highest death rates.

China reported just eight cases of the coronavirus on Friday, with no new domestic infections outside the epicentre of Hubei province.

The National Health Commission said there were five more people infected in Hubei’s capital Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December.

The numbers are the lowest daily tally for Wuhan since China started reporting figures in January.

South Korea — once grappling with the largest coronavirus outbreak outside China — saw its newly recovered patients exceed fresh infections for the first time on Friday, as it reported the lowest number of new cases for three weeks.

The country confirmed 110 new infections, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said, taking its total to date to 7,979.

But 177 fully recovered patients were released on Thursday, it added.

A 76-year-old man who recently died tested positive for the novel coronavirus, an  Indian state health minister reported Thursday, marking the country’s first fatality from the global pandemic.

The man ‘has been Confirmed for #COVID19. The necessary contact tracing, isolation & other measures as per protocol are being carried out,’ B Sriramulu, health minister for Karnataka state, wrote on Twitter.

Sudan announced on Friday its first case of the novel coronavirus following the death of a 50-year-old man the night before.

The Sudanese citizen had recently been in the United Arab Emirates, the health ministry said in a statement, without providing further details.

An elderly patient died in Norway after becoming infected with the coronavirus, local authorities said on Thursday.

The death in an Oslo hospital brings  to two the number of deaths caused by the COVID-19 in the Nordic region.

A Philippine diplomat in New York has tested positive for the new coronavirus in the first recorded case at United Nations headquarters in the city, diplomatic sources said on Thursday.

The diplomat, who had last visited the UN on Monday, showed symptoms of flu the following day and saw a doctor.

‘She got the call today that she tested positive for COVID-19,’ said a letter from the Philippines mission.

Kenya and Ethiopia on Friday announced their first confirmed cases of coronavirus, as East Africa, which has so far been unscathed by the global pandemic, scaled up emergency measures to contain its spread.

The Czech Republic has joined the list of countries closing its borders. The measure applies equally to foreigners wanting to enter and well as Czechs who want to leave, from Monday.

Slovakia also closed its borders to all foreigners, except for Poles.

Prague also banned citizens from entering the so-called risk zone, which includes Austria, Belgium, Britain, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland.

Nine Chinese experts and several tonnes of medical aid have arrived on a special to flight to Italy to help the country fight Europe’s most serious coronavirus outbreak.

China, the epicentre of the outbreak that first emerged in December, has said the peak of the epidemic has passed in the country after a steady decline in the number of new cases.

Four towns in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region were put under quarantine on Thursday, the civil protection agency said, in a first in the country.

The 66,000 inhabitants of the localities of Igualada, Odena, Santa Margarida de Montbui and Vilanova del Cami ‘cannot leave their urban core’ although they can leave their homes, a statement said, citing instructions from Catalonia’s governor.

At least six US states have ordered schools to close in an attempt to curb the spread of the new coronavirus which has infected more than 1,660 people across the country.

Schools in Ohio, Michigan, Oregon, Maryland, Kentucky and New Mexico were told to shut from Monday for at least two weeks, affecting millions of students and likely to cause problems for many low income families who rely on free or subsidized school meals.

Educational establishments in France will be shut for the next two weeks ‘at least’, due to the coronavirus, a minister said Friday, describing the move as part of a nationwide ‘applying of the brakes’ to halt the spread of COVID-19.

President Emmanuel Macron had in an address to the nation late on Thursday announced a range of stringent measures to slow the spread of the virus, including closing all creches, schools and universities from Monday until further notice.

Luxembourg has joined its European neighbours in closing schools and limiting visits to the elderly in hospitals and nursing homes, hoping to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Portugal will close all schools from Monday until at just before Easter to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, prime minister Antonio Costa announced.

The EU executive on Friday unveiled a raft of measures to protect the European economy from the coronavirus outbreak, and promised it would do whatever it takes for hardest-hit Italy.

The assurances by EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen came a day after ECB head Christine Lagarde stoked fury in Rome by implying that shoring up Italy’s precarious financial situation was not her job.

Von der Leyen said the commission, the EU’s powerful bureaucracy, would try to provide Italy with whatever support it needs to overcome the challenge of the coronavirus.

All Catholic churches across Rome have been closed to stem the spread of a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 1,000 people across Italy.

The churches will reopen when a broader Italian government crackdown on public gatherings expires on April 3, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the papal vicar for Rome, said in a statement.

The Mormon Church announced Thursday it is suspending all public ceremonies and gatherings of its members around the world over the new coronavirus pandemic.

The church said it took the measures after consulting government and medical officials, and had ‘sought the Lord’s guidance in these matters.’

New Zealand cancelled one of the Pacific’s largest cultural festivals on Friday, saying there was too much risk of attendees contracting coronavirus then spreading it throughout vulnerable island nations.

Auckland’s annual Pasifika Festival normally attracts more than 60,000 people from across the region and is billed as the biggest Polynesian celebration in the world.

But prime minister Jacinda Ardern said she feared allowing it to proceed could lead to an outbreak similar to the measles epidemic in Samoa late last year that killed 83 people, mostly babies and toddlers.

Latin American states preparing for the onslaught of the new coronavirus on Thursday tightened restrictions on travel links to Europe as the region recorded its third death in the outbreak.

Fears over the pandemic swept through Latin American markets, continuing a global rout that began in Asia early Thursday and forced the region’s biggest carrier to slash flights.

The Pan American Health Organisation warned governments to get ready to cope with the pandemic.

British Airways will cut jobs after the coronavirus pandemic devastated demand for global air travel, its chief executive Alex Cruz said Friday.

‘To be frank, given the changing circumstances, we can no longer sustain our current level of employment and jobs will be lost -- perhaps for a short period, perhaps longer term,’ Cruz said in an internal memo confirmed by the group.

The US state of Ohio likely has more than 100,000 people carrying the new coronavirus, the state health department director said.

Speaking at a press conference Thursday with state governor Mike DeWine to announce measures to slow the spread of the pandemic, director Amy Acton said Ohio had community spread of the virus.

Between 70 to 150 million people in the United States could eventually be infected with the novel coronavirus, according to a projection shared with Congress, a lawmaker said Thursday.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib made the remarks during a hearing of the House of Representatives with members of the president’s coronavirus task force, confirming earlier reports by US media outlets including Axios and NBC News.

Disney will close its giant theme parks in Florida, California and Paris this weekend until the end of March.

New York has banned gatherings of more than 500 people, including in Broadway theatres.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net