Global Status Report on COVID-19 Pandemic

The worldwide death toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 1,17,726. More than 1,897,306 declared cases have been registered in 193 countries and territories of which 438,212 have been recovered. Many countries are testing only the most serious cases.

WHO Calls COVID-19 More Deadly Than H1N1

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that the novel coronavirus is 10 times more deadly than swine flu, also called H1N1, which caused a global pandemic in 2009, calling for control measures to be lifted “slowly”.

“We know that Covid-19 spreads fast, and we know that it is deadly, 10 times more deadly than the 2009 flu pandemic,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from Geneva.

New York toll Crossed 10,000

In the United States, now the epicentre of the pandemic, the death toll stands at 22,948 with 5,57,590 infections. At least 41,831 patients have recovered.

New York’s death toll from coronavirus topped 10,000, with hospitals still seeing 2,000 new patients a day, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday. The state tallied 671 new deaths on Sunday. It was the first time in a week the daily toll dipped below 700. Still, the governor noted people are still dying at a “horrific level of pain and grief and sorrow.” “This virus is very good at what it does. It is a killer,” Cuomo said during a state Capitol news briefing.

Cuomo said almost 2,000 people were newly hospitalized with the virus Sunday, though once discharges and deaths are accounted for, the number of people hospitalized has flattened to just under 19,000. The governor said the state’s tenuous progress will likely continue as long as people continue to follow stay-at-home restrictions.

“The worst can be over, and it is over unless we do something reckless,” Cuomo said. “And you can turn those numbers on two or three days of reckless behavior.”

Meanwhile, New York City is in danger of running out of swabs for COVID-19 tests and is urging medical providers to continue testing only patients who are gravely ill, the city health department said in a memo to health care providers.

Italy’s virus death toll Crosses 20,000

Italy’s death toll from the novel coronavirus topped 20,000 on Monday but its number of critically ill patients dropped for the tenth successive day as its rate of infections slowed.

The 566 new deaths reported by the civil protection service takes Italy’s fatalities total to 20,465 — officially second in the world behind the United States.

Death toll in Britain rises above 11,000

The death toll in Britain from coronavirus has risen to 11,329, according to health ministry figures published on Monday — an increase of 717 on the previous day’s figures. The daily increase is the lowest for several days, although it is not unusual for numbers to drop after a weekend due to delays in collating data. The numbers only refer to deaths in hospital.

Spain death toll falls 

Workers in Spain’s construction and manufacturing sectors cautiously returned to work Monday as the daily death toll resumed its downward trend and new infections fell to the lowest level in three weeks.

Spain is one of the worst-hit countries in the world, and saw the daily death rate fall for three consecutive days last week, only to rise again on Sunday.

But on Monday it fell again, with 517 deaths in 24 hours, putting the overall death toll at 17,489 with the number of cases now standing at 169,496.

Iran reports 111 virus deaths

Iran’s Health Ministry on Monday reported another 111 deaths from the novel coronavirus, taking the official overall toll in the worst-hit Middle East country to 4,585. Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said 1,617 new infections took the total number of cases in the country’s outbreak to 73,303, of whom 45,983 had recovered.

Germany moving towards gradual reopening as virus cases drops

Germany is moving towards a progressive lifting of restrictions linked to the coronavirus outbreak as new infections fall and the number of deaths remains far below its European neighbours.

The nation’s Academy of Sciences Leopoldina recommended on Monday a gradual relaxing of restrictions in stages if new infections stabilise at a low level and personal hygiene measures to avoid spread of the coronavirus are maintained.