Key developments in the global coronavirus outbreak today include:
Global confirmed death toll nears 200,000
According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, at least 199,874 people are confirmed to have died worldwide, while at least 2.84 million are known to have been infected.
The figures for infections are likely to underestimate the true scale of the pandemic due to suspected under-reporting and differing testing regimes. Death toll figures are also controversial, with some countries reporting deaths as confirmed Covid-19 cases on the basis of symptoms and in the absence of a positive test, while others are not including them.
UK hospital Covid-19 death toll passes 20,000
Britain has become the fifth country in the world to reach the grim milestone of exceeding 20,000 coronavirus-related deaths.
Government figures released on Saturday showed that a further 813 people died in hospital after testing positive for Covid-19, taking the country’s total to 20,319. These figures do not include the thousands of more deaths known to have taken place in care homes.
It comes almost six weeks after the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said that keeping the toll under 20,000 would be “a good outcome in terms of where we would hope to get”.
South Africans must wear face masks after lockdown eases
The South African government has ordered citizens to wear face masks from 1 May when coronavirus lockdown restrictions will begin to be eased.
“It is going to be mandatory to use a cloth mask as you step out of your home,” the traditional affairs minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, told a press conference in Pretoria. She added that people could use a scarf or T-shirt if they do not have a mask. South Africa has been on lockdown since 27 March.
Far right hijack coronavirus crisis to push agenda and boost support
Far-right groups in the UK, US and EU are exploiting the coronavirus crisis to push their anti-minority agendas and win new support, Jamie Doward reports. A report by the Zinc Network, a communications agency that tracks disinformation and propaganda, suggests there has been a clear pivot among far-right movements to “utilise the pandemic to bring new relevancy, attention and support for their key grievances”.
Doctors and nurses in Pakistan launch hunger strike over lack of PPE
Dozens of doctors and nurses in Pakistan have launched a hunger strike over a lack of protective masks and other equipment for treating patients with Covid-19. More than 150 doctors in Pakistan have tested positive for coronavirus and several have died, according to the Young Doctors Association in Punjab, the country’s worst-hit province.
Salman Haseeb, head of the Punjab’s Grand Health Alliance, said about 30 doctors and nurses in Punjab were on hunger strike. “We do not intend on stopping until the government listens to our demands. They have been consistently refusing to adhere to our demands,” Haseeb told AFP.
Pandemic could ‘turn back the clock’ 20 years on malaria deaths – WHO
The World Health Organization has warned that deaths from malaria could double this year as a result of the disruption caused by Covid-19. The UN’s global health agency said that if countries failed to maintain delivery of insecticide-treated nets and access to antimalarial medicines, up to 769,000 people could die of malaria this year. Read the full report.