More than 2,05,000 people have died from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, while almost 2,965,711 infections have been confirmed in at least 185 countries and territories. More than 8,71,000 people have recovered to date.
US: With limited supplies of coronavirus tests available, the Pentagon is focusing first on testing those performing duties deemed most vital to national security. Atop the list are the men and women who operate the nation’s nuclear forces, some counterterrorism forces, and the crew of a soon-to-deploy aircraft carrier.
Defence leaders hope to increase testing from the current rate of about 7,000 a day to 60,000 by June. This will enable them to test those showing symptoms as well as those who do not.
The current tight supply forced the Pentagon to take a phased approach, which includes testing sailors aboard the USS Nimitz, the Bremerton, Washington-based Navy carrier next in line to head to the Pacific. Officials hope to avoid a repeat of problems that plagued the virus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt. On Friday the Navy disclosed a virus outbreak aboard another ship at sea, the USS Kidd.
The United States recorded 2,494 more coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, according to figures reported Saturday night by Johns Hopkins University.
The country now has an overall death toll of 53,511, with 936,293 confirmed infections, according to a tally by the Baltimore-based university at 8:30 pm.
The United States is by far the hardest-hit country in the global pandemic, in terms of both confirmed infections and deaths.
UK: Britain’s stand-in leader resisted pressure on Sunday to explain how the government plans to ease a coronavirus lockdown that has been in place for a month, warning that hasty action could result in a second peak of infections.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson for three weeks, since he was taken to hospital with a serious case of COVID-19. Johnson, who has been recovering in the countryside since April 12, will resume full-time work on Monday and is “raring to go”, Raab said.
Appearing on political TV shows in his last day at the helm, Raab said the government was working privately on how to move out of the lockdown, but that speculating in public might dilute the current guidance to stay at home.
“We are at a delicate and dangerous stage and we need to make sure that the next steps are sure-footed,” Raab told Sky News.
Britain’s death toll from the coronavirus rose to by 413 to 20,732, farming and environment minister George Eustice said during a news conference. Eustice said a total of 152,840 people had tested positive for the virus, an increase of 4,463 from the previous day.
Spain: Spain has reported its lowest daily death count for coronavirus infections in five weeks as its strict lockdown restrictions begin to pay dividends. Spanish health authorities said Sunday that 288 people died from Covid-19 in the previous 24 hours, taking the total to 23,190 since the start of the outbreak. It is the first time the daily death toll has fallen below 300 fatalities since March 20.
The daily number of confirmed new infections also dropped. Spain counts 207,634 confirmed cases overall, but authorities said the true number of infections is unknown due to limits on testing.
Italy: As Italy prepares to emerge from the West’s first and most extensive coronavirus lockdown, it is increasingly clear that something went terribly wrong in Lombardy, the hardest-hit region in Europe’s hardest-hit country.
Italy had the bad luck of being the first Western nation to be slammed by the outbreak, and its total of 26,000 fatalities lags behind only the US in the global death toll. Italy’s first homegrown case was recorded Feb 21, at a time when the World Health Organisation was still insisting the virus was “containable” and not nearly as infectious as the flu.
But there’s also evidence that demographics and health care deficiencies combined with political and business interests to expose Lombardy’s 10 million people in ways unseen anywhere else, particularly the most vulnerable in nursing homes.
Iran: The death toll from the new coronavirus outbreak in Iran rose by 60 in the past 24 hours to 5,710, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said on Sunday. The total number of diagnosed cases of the new coronavirus in Iran has reached 90,481, he said in a statement on state TV.
Russia: Russia reported 6,361 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, pushing its national tally to 80,949. Sixty-six people succumbed to the virus in the previous day, bringing the death toll to 747, Russia’s official crisis response centre said.