Virus deaths hit 250,000; 3.6M infected worldwide
ByAgence France-Presse May 6, 2020
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic reached 251,000 while 3.6 million individuals have been infected on Tuesday, with the United States government predicting a further surge in fatalities as an international vaccine drive garnered $8 billion in pledges.
The dire forecast from the US came as much of the Western world emerged from weeks of lockdown with hopes that the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) may have peaked in Europe, where deaths in the worst affected countries have dropped after nearly two months of confinement.
But the global progress did little to cool a war of words between the US and China over responsibility for the pandemic — a feud that has been fueled by US claims that the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory — a theory the World Health Organization labeled “speculative.”
An Associated Press tally of official figures showed Europe is the hardest-hit continent with around 145,000 fatalities. The US has recorded close to 68,700. Together they account for more than 85 percent of global deaths.
Since the disease first surfaced in China late last year, the number of confirmed cases has reached almost 3.6 million.
The grim figures were compounded Monday by an internal government estimate in Washington that forecast the daily Covid-19 infection rate in the US could surge more than eight-fold to 200,000 per day by June 1, and the death toll could rise to 3,000.
US President Donald Trump has acknowledged that deaths will go beyond his earlier prediction of 60,000, saying: “We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people.”
His prediction underscored the tough, politically-tinged debate over reopening, which pits concerns about a rising death toll against the need to restore national economies shattered by prolonged shutdowns.
On Monday, US manufacturing giant General Electric announced it will cut an additional 10,000 jobs from its aviation sector as the coronavirus pandemic decimates the industry.
In Europe, citizens basked in a return to the outdoors, mixed with a dose of trepidation about life ahead and the economic damage wreaked by lockdowns.
Workers banged away at construction sites in Rome, police handed out masks in Madrid and older children returned to school in Vienna as Europeans gingerly stepped out of their homes.
