COVID-19: Global death toll mounts over 95,000, infections over 1.6 million

More than 95,000 people around the world have died of COVID-19 and the number confirmed cases has swept past 1.6 million, according to Johns Hopkins University figures.

At least 95,739 people have lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic so far. There are 1,604,950 confirmed cases worldwide.

Meanwhile, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned the UN Security Council on Thursday that the coronavirus pandemic is threatening international peace and security, potentially leading to an increase in social unrest and violence.

The US State Department criticised the World Health Organization. After Donald Trump threatened to withhold funding for the WHO, the State Department has said the health body was too late in sounding the alarm over Covid-19 and overly deferential to China.

The WHO warned the US and other countries about the risk of human-to-human transmission of Covid-19 as early as 10 January. Donald Trump has attempted to blame the WHO for the pandemic, pointing to a WHO tweet on 14 January saying “there was no human-to-human transmission”.

The US has suffered a total 16,697 deaths from novel coronavirus and country’s cases tally has swept past 468,000.  It is reported that 16.8 million Americans have lost their jobs in the last three weeks as the coronavirus pandemic brings the US economy to a standstill. 6.6 million of those jobs were lost in the last week alone.

China, where the coronavirus outbreak was first emerged, has reported only 42 new coronavirus cases and 38 of them are said to be imported, along with one additional death in the hardest-hit city of Wuhan.

In Italy, the country with the highest number fatalities to date, a record total of 18,279 persons have died of coronavirus so far and a total of 143,626 cases are reported countrywide.

In the meantime, the South Korean city of Daegu, which endured the first large coronavirus outbreak outside of China, on Friday reported zero new cases for the first time since late February, as new infections across the country dropped to record lows.

British media reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved out of intensive care as his condition is improving. Johnson’s office said: “The prime minister has been moved this evening from intensive care back to the ward, where he will receive close monitoring during the early phase of his recovery.”

The UK and Ireland are expected to extend current lockdown measures over the Easter weekend. It comes as deaths in the countries continue to grow. The UK has suffered 7,978 deaths from coronavirus so far while its infections tally hit 65,077.

-with inputs from agencies