{"id":100729,"date":"2020-04-04T15:05:06","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T22:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=100729"},"modified":"2020-04-04T15:14:11","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T22:14:11","slug":"covid-19-us-sets-grim-record-with-1480-daily-deaths-global-toll-over-59000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/04\/covid-19-us-sets-grim-record-with-1480-daily-deaths-global-toll-over-59000\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19: US sets grim record with 1,480 daily deaths, global toll over 59,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"COVID-19:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The US on Friday set a new record for the number of COVID-19 deaths in one day with 1,480 dead, the most of any country since the pandemic began. That topped the record set by the US the previous day with 1,169 deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 59,000 people have died from COVID-19, and over one million infected, since it was first detected late last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worse may be coming as a quarter of global infections are in the United States, where US President Donald Trump has warned of a very, very painful\u201d first two weeks of April. The US has over 277,000 confirmed case, more than any country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confirmed Cases and Deaths as of 23.00GMT<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Europe reached the dark milestone of 40,000 dead, with Spain on Friday reporting more than 900 deaths in the past 24 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spaniard Javier Lara survived after being put on oxygen in an overcrowded intensive care unit \u2014 a shock to a 29-year-old who was athletic and doesn\u2019t smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was panicking that my daughter would get infected,\u201d he said, describing facing death with an eight-week-old as the worst moment\u201d in his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there were also signs the peak may be passing in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardest-hit Italy recorded 766 new deaths but its infections rose by just four percent, the lowest increase yet, according to the civil protection service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s true that the latest figures, as high as they are, give us a little bit of hope,\u201d said Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is definitely much too early to see a clear trend in that, and it is certainly too early to think in any way about relaxing the strict rules we have given ourselves,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosperous countries have borne the brunt of the disease, but there are fears of an explosion among the world\u2019s most vulnerable living in conflict zones or refugee camps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The worst is yet to come,\u201d UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, referring to countries such as Syria, Libya and Yemen. The COVID-19 storm is now coming to all these theaters of conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world economy has been pummeled by the virus and associated lockdowns, with the US economy shedding 701,000 jobs in March \u2014 its worst showing since March 2009 in the wake of the subprime banking crisis. Even more dire figures are expected for April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial ratings agency Fitch predicted the US and eurozone economies would shrink this quarter by up to 30 percent and the Asian Development Bank warned the global economy could take a $4.1 trillion hit \u2014 equivalent to five percent of worldwide output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latin America is heading into a deep recession\u201d with an expected drop of 1.8 to 4% in GDP, according to the UN economic commission for the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In signs that the world wants to avoid a repeat of the crisis, the African country of Gabon said it was banning the sale and consumption of bats and pangolins, the critically endangered, scaly mammals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The novel coronavirus is believed to have come from bats, but researchers think it might have spread to humans via another mammal such as pangolins through an unsanitary meat market in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus first emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The virus has chiefly killed the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions, but recent deaths among teenagers and babies have highlighted the dangers for people of all ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Spain, 34-year-old Vanesa Muro gave birth with COVID-19 and has been warned not to touch her newborn without wearing gloves and masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard,\u201d she told AFP. He grabs your finger, the poor little thing, and holds onto the plastic, not on to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the death toll mounted, US authorities advised all Americans on Friday to wear masks in public to protect against the virus, fearing the illness that has infected more than one million people worldwide may be spreading by normal breathing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump said the government recommendation for all 330 million Americans to wear non-medical masks in places such as grocery stores would last for a period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s going to be really a voluntary thing,\u201d Trump told reporters. You don\u2019t have to do it and I\u2019m choosing not to do it, but some people may want to do it and that\u2019s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the decision came because many people with the virus were showing no symptoms, but warned it was still vital to practice social distancing\u201d by maintaining space between people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcement came after Anthony Fauci, who is leading the government\u2019s scientific response, backed recent scholarship that found the virus SARS-CoV-2 can be suspended in the ultra-fine mist formed when people exhale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research indicates the virus can actually be spread even when people just speak as opposed to coughing and sneezing,\u201d Fauci said on Fox News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Academy of Sciences sent a letter to the White House on April 1 summarizing recent research on the subject, saying it\u2019s not yet conclusive but the results\u2026 are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the virus was first identified in China in late December last year, health experts have said it is primarily spread through coughing and sneezing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US recommendation will likely worsen an already severe shortage of masks in the United States and Europe, which both rely heavily on imports from China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump urged Americans to just make something\u201d or use scarves, saving clinical masks for health professionals and patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Adaderana The US on Friday set a new record for the number of COVID-19 deaths in one day with 1,480 dead, the most of any country since the pandemic began. That topped the record set by the US the previous day with 1,169 deaths. More than 59,000 people have died from COVID-19, and over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}