COVID-19: Cases top 1.5 million worldwide as the number in U.S. nears third of the total

coronavirus usa

Confirmed cases of coronavirus, officially Covid-19, ticked to just over one and a half million worldwide on Wednesday, with the death toll now standing at over 87,000. Out of the worldwide cases, more than 319,000 patients are considered fully recovered.

Worldwide cases of the coronavirus now stand at 1,500,830, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Fatalities from the virus have also lept to 87,706. The U.S. has quickly become the most infected country, seeing a major jump in cases this week. There are over 420,000 cases and a death toll that went above 14,000 on Wednesday, a 24-hour increase of nearly 2000, making Tuesday the deadliest day yet for the U.S. when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic.

New York has become the epicenter of the disease as the worst hit in the U.S., with Governor Andrew Cuomo announcing 779 new deaths from Tuesday, the one day highest death toll increase for the state yet.

Over 6,000 people have died in the New York state from the virus where confirmed cases have since long crossed the 140,000 milestone.

Though the death rate continues to skyrocket in the state, Cuomo insists the curve is being flattened because hospital admissions have been declining.

Despite the jump in cases and fatalities in the U.S., Italy remains the worst hit with 17,669 deaths recorded.

The pandemic shows little signs of slowing down in Europe, where countries like Spain continue to jump in number of cases. Spain currently has 146 690 confirmed cases, the second largest number in the world.

Do not politicize this virus unless you want more body bags, WHO chief responds to Trump

The World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Ghebreyesus has responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to defund the UN health body with a harsh rebuke. Not focusing on the criticism of the body’s Covid-19 response, he instead promised more deaths.

“The focus of all political parties should be to save their people, please do not politicize this virus,” the WHO director general said a day after Trump dubbed the UN health body “China-centric” and blamed China for being too slow to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan that eventually grew into a pandemic.

The WHO chief called for unity across the globe in fighting the disease, adding that any political strifes would only benefit the virus. He said: “If you want to be exploited and if you want to have many more body bags, then you do it. If you don’t want more body bags, then you refrain from politicizing it.”

The comment came the day after Trump threatened to cut the organization’s funding. The U.S. is WHO’s biggest single donor, contributing about one fifth of the organization’s budget over the last two years.

The U.S. president’s words apparently fell on the fertile ground as Senator Lindsey Graham, who is in charge of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee overseeing foreign operations, immediately rushed to declare that “there is not going to be any money for the WHO” in the next appropriations bill.

The Senator also called for a change of leadership in the UN body for one that would be more in line with Washington’s expectations, adding that “it is in America’s best interests to withhold funding” until then.

Some U.S. politicians have been accusing WHO of failing to advocate travel bans and other drastic measures in time when they could stop the disease from spreading to other countries from China where it originated.

Over the months since that start of the outbreak, China has seemingly beaten the virus through weeks-long severe quarantine, which previously saw the city of Wuhan with a population of 11 million people put on a total lockdown.


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