COVID-19: Death toll nears 2-lakh mark, Brazil emerging as new hot spot

Washington/Rio De Janeiro/Jakarta: The United States accounts for more than one fourth of the global COVID-19 deaths and over one-third of the total number of people infected with the deadly virus, latest figures revealed on Friday.

The coronavirus pandemic that started from Wuhan City in China in November, 2019 has so far killed more than 195,000 people across the world and infected more than 27 lakh.

The United States, which has been the worst hit by coronavirus alone accounts the highest number so far; wherein more than 9.2 lakh Americans have tested positive for COVID-19 and the fatalities count on Friday stood at 51,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In fact, the number of COVID-19 cases in the US is more than the next six countries taken together: Spain (219,764), Italy (192,994), France (159,495), Germany (154,545), United Kingdom (144,635) and Turkey (104,912).

Despite accounting for the largest number of fatalities, the death rate, however, in the US is much lower than other countries, according to Johns Hopkins University.

So far, 51,000 people have died due to COVID-19 in US, followed by Italy (25,969), Spain (22,524), France (22,245), and United Kingdom (19,506).

In the United States, New York accounts for the largest number of fatalities (17,671) with 271,890 confirmed cases. However, the US seems to be past its peak.

Nationwide the per cent of tests that come back positive has declined very significantly, US President Donald Trump told reporters at his daily White House news conference on coronavirus.

Last week, roughly 38 per cent of the tests in New York were positive; this week that number is down to 28 percent. New cases in New York are down 50 per cent compared to a week ago, and fatalities are down 40 per cent over the same period, he said.

In Louisiana, the rate of positive test result declined from 25 per cent down to 15 per cent in the last seven days alone. As many as 18 states now show a decline in a number of positive tests in the last seven days which is a very, very significant progress, Trump said.

As a result, half of all Americans live in states that have now taken steps to open their economies, Trump said, a day earlier California, Minnesota, and Tennessee announced additional plans to restart certain sectors.

We ask every American to maintain vigilance and hygiene, social distancing, and voluntary use of face coverings. We are opening our country. It's very exciting to see, he said.

Brazil becoming coronavirus hot spot

Cases of the new coronavirus are overwhelming hospitals, morgues and cemeteries across Brazil as Latin America's largest nation veers closer to becoming one of the world's pandemic hot spots.

Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse, or already too overwhelmed to take any more patients.

Health experts expect the number of infections in the country of 211 million people will be much higher than what has been reported because of insufficient, delayed testing.

Meanwhile, President Jair Bolsonaro has shown no sign of wavering from his insistence that COVID-19 is a relatively minor disease and that broad social-distancing measures are not needed to stop it. He has said only Brazilians at high risk should be isolated.

In Manaus, the biggest city in the Amazon, officials said a cemetery has been forced to dig mass graves because there have been so many deaths. Workers have been burying 100 corpses a day triple the pre-virus average of burials.

Ytalo Rodrigues, a 20-year-old driver for a funerary service provider in Manaus, said he had retrieved one body after another for more than 36 hours, without a break. There were so many deaths, his employer had to add a second hearse, Rodrigues said.

So far, the health ministry has confirmed nearly 53,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 3,600 deaths. By official counts, the country had its worst day yet on Thursday, with about 3,700 new cases and more than 400 deaths, and Friday was nearly as grim.

Experts warned that paltry testing means the true number of infections is far greater.

Scientists from the University of Sao Paulo, University of Brasilia and other institutions say the true number of people infected with the virus as of this week is probably as much as 587,000 to 1.1 million people.

The health ministry said in a report earlier this month that it has the capacity to test 6,700 people per day a far cry from the roughly 40,000 it will need when the virus peaks.

Muslims begin marking a subdued Ramadan

Muslims worldwide began Ramadan on Friday with dawn-to-dusk fasting, but many will have to forgo the communal prayers and family gatherings that make the holy month special, as authorities maintain lockdowns aimed at slowing the coronavirus pandemic.

Ramadan is usually a festive season, with the daylong fast followed by lavish meals and evening get-togethers. But this year many are confined to their homes, travel is heavily restricted and public venues like parks, malls and even mosques are shuttered.

Many are also weighed down by anxiety about the pandemic and widespread job losses resulting from the worldwide shutdowns.

Muslim-majority countries began imposing widespread restrictions in mid-March, with many cancelling Friday prayers and shuttering holy sites. Saudi Arabia has largely locked down Mecca and Medina and halted the year-round umrah pilgrimage.

On Friday, the Saudi-led coalition said it would extend a unilateral cease-fire with Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels through Ramzan. Fighting has continued, with each side blaming the other.

Muslim-majority Malaysia extended its own lockdown by two more weeks to May 12, although its daily virus cases have dropped significantly in the past week. The country now has 5,603 cases, including 95 deaths.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a televised speech on the eve of Ramzan that the jihad, or holy war, against the pandemic has shown results but must continue.

Malaysia, along with neighbouring Singapore and Brunei, has banned popular Ramadan bazaars, where food, drinks and clothing are sold in congested open-air markets or roadside stalls. The bazaars are a key source of income for many small traders, some of whom have shifted their businesses online.

In Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan has bowed to pressure from the country's powerful clerical establishment and allowed mosques to remain open, even as the number of new cases has recently doubled to between 600 and 700 each day. Some clerics have ordered their followers to pack into mosques, saying their faith will protect them.

Pakistan's southern Sindh province, however, banned Ramadan prayers after the Pakistan Medical Association pleaded with authorities to close mosques nationwide.

A key element of Ramadan is charity, with the fast partly intended to cultivate empathy for the needy. But many countries have imposed bans on communal meals, forcing charities to organize home deliveries instead.

In Turkey, authorities have banned the tradition of setting up tents and outdoor tables to provide free meals to the poor. It has also forbidden drummers from going door to door to wake people up for the pre-dawn meal in exchange for tips another Ramzan tradition.

Last month, Turkey also banned communal prayers in mosques. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that the month of Ramzan should not be an excuse to relax precautions. The month of blessings should not result in illness, he said.

In Istanbul, Esat Sahin, the chief imam at Fatih Mosque, said it's a very lonely situation. "Our mosques are deprived of their congregation, like a child who has been orphaned," he said. "Our hearts are very heavy because of this."

In war-ravaged Afghanistan, lockdowns have compounded the suffering of the poor. More than 1,300 people have tested positive in Afghanistan, and 43 have died.

(With inputs from AFP and AP)