The United States of America has become the country hardest hit in the world by the Corona epidemic in terms of the number of injuries and deaths, while the disease continues to spread beyond the capacity of health systems in many countries.
The number of cases of Covid-19 disease caused by the emerging coronavirus around the world exceeded 1.77 million, of whom more than 108,000 died, while more than 402,000 people recovered, according to the latest statistics published at dawn on Sunday, Johns Hopkins University, the US that monitors the spread of the epidemic globally .
The World Health Organization said on Saturday it was investigating reports of infected people who had tested positive for the presence of the virus, after they had recovered and conducted initial tests that showed they were free of it.
On Friday, South Korean officials announced that 91 people who were believed to have recovered from the virus initially found out that the virus was still in their bodies.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in South Korea, Jeong Eun Kyung, said - in a press briefing - that the virus may be active again in these people and they did not catch it with a new infection.
In response to a question about these cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) told Reuters: "We are aware of these reports of people whose tests showed the type of polymerase chain reaction that they did not have COFED-19, and that after several days, they showed that the virus had returned to them again."
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The organization stated that it is seeking to collect more information about these cases, and it was advised to collect samples from the recovered people in a systematic manner in order to understand what is going on in the following stages.
After 20,000 deaths
in the meantime, the number of deaths due to coronavirus infection in the United States exceeded 20,000 yesterday, Saturday, the highest toll recorded in one country, although there are indications that the epidemic may be nearing its climax, after infections exceeding half Million across the country. New York State has 160,000 HIV infections.
Italy recorded the second largest number of deaths at 19,468, and Spain came in third with a population of 16,606 cases.
It is noteworthy that the population of the United States is five times greater than the population of Italy, and almost seven times that of Spain.
A priest stands on graves in New York, the worst-hit American city (Reuters)
The United States has experienced its highest death rate so far from infection, with almost 2,000 cases recorded daily over the past four days.
Public health experts have warned that the total number of deaths in the United States could reach 200,000 during the summer, if after 30 days the unprecedented restrictions on staying at home were lifted that shut down businesses and kept most Americans indoors.
And in New York - the city that witnessed the largest spread of the disease in the United States - shocking pictures taken by a local media using a flying plane showed dozens of coffins in the process of being buried in a mass grave in Hart Island, an island northeast of the Bronx neighborhood called "the Island of the Dead", for use since Nineteenth century burial of the poor.
Warning from the Kremlin
The Kremlin said Saturday that "pressures exceeding the capacity of hospitals, and a huge flow" of patients of the emerging coronavirus, began to put tremendous pressure on hospitals in Moscow, with the number of deaths in Russia increasing to more than one hundred.
A Reuters witness saw a crowd of dozens of ambulances lined up outside a hospital dealing with Corona cases, in an area on the outskirts of Moscow awaiting admission of patients.
An ambulance driver said that he had been waiting 15 hours outside the hospital to deliver a suspected HIV patient.
"The situation in Moscow and in St. Petersburg - but especially in Moscow - is very tense, because the number of patients is increasing," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with official television reported by Russian news agencies.
"There is a huge influx of patients. We are seeing hospitals operating in Moscow in a very stressful emergency environment and in a spirit of heroism," he added.
Russia recorded 13,584 cases of the virus, and the authorities said that they had recorded 12 new deaths related to the disease the previous day, bringing the total number of deaths to 106 cases.
A jump in Britain, France
and Britain, officials said on Saturday that the country had recorded 917 new deaths from the Coronavirus, the largest number of deaths in the virus in a single day, bringing the total to 9875.
Stephen Boyce, director of the National Health Service in England, said the decision to close in his country to limit the spread of the Coronavirus could take more than a month. During a press conference in London, in response to a question about extending the closure period, Boyes likened his country's fight against the virus to the long-running race.
He continued, "There is no magic solution that does not require difficult decisions, it will not be a short race that takes a few weeks, but rather it will be longer, it will be a long-term race."
In France, 643 new deaths from the Coruna virus were recorded on Saturday, bringing the total number to 13,832.
On the other hand, the German government said it was concerned about the repercussions of severe communication restrictions due to the Corona pandemic.
In a strategy paper issued by the Ministry of the Interior, the German authorities expressed concern about what it described as the consequences of overcoming the state of isolation for society and the psychological and social effects of the Corona crisis.
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She said support for tough measures would be greatly reduced, and that the effectiveness of these measures and their consistency with legal foundations would be called into question.
European call to restrict movement of the elderly
The head of the European Commission - the executive arm of the European Union - Ursula von der Leyen said that the mixing of the elderly with their surroundings should remain limited until at least the end of the year, to prevent infection with the emerging coronavirus.
In a statement to the German newspaper Bild published today, Sunday, the European official explained that "in the absence of a vaccine, the elderly should be contacted as much as possible."
"Children and young people will enjoy more freedom of movement than the elderly and those with a history of disease," she added, but she expressed the hope that a European medical laboratory would produce a vaccine "by the end of the year."
Curfew in Turkey
The Turkish Ministry of Health announced - Saturday evening - the death of Corona virus deaths to 1101, after recording 95 new deaths during the past 24 hours.
And recent data published by the ministry on its official website showed that corona's injuries amounted to 52,167, after 5138 new cases were registered.
The same data indicated that 33,170 corona examinations were performed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 340,380.
It reported that 2,965 people have recovered from the virus, while 1,626 people are in intensive care units.
Earlier, Turkish authorities forced their citizens to stay in their homes for 48 hours in 31 cities, including Istanbul and Ankara. The embargo began on Friday night, as part of strict new measures to contain the emerging corona virus.
East Asia
In East and Southeast Asia, the Corona virus continues to spread in many countries, such as Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, leaving a number of victims behind.
Corona deaths in Malaysia have reached 73, after recording 3 new cases in the past 24 hours. And the injuries increased to 4,530, after registering 184 new ones, while the total number of people recovered reached 1995.
In Indonesia, Corona's injuries amounted to 3,842, after 330 new injuries were recorded in the past 24 hours, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Health.
The statement indicated that the number of deaths rose to 327, after recording 21 new deaths.
In Japan, the Anatolia Agency reported that the total number of deaths was 141, and 7566 injuries, and the Japanese government declared a state of emergency in seven states.
In the Philippines, 26 deaths were recorded, bringing the total to 247, and the death toll rose to 4428, after 233 new injuries were recorded.
Source: Al-Jazeera + agencies
