Coronavirus: Global Updates

Some countries around the globe are undergoing a peak and some are leaving it behind, but the overall reality remains the same – the coronavirus cases continue to rise. Globally, 3,205,878 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed; 995,405 have recovered while 227,290 have been killed by the virus, the vaccine for which, still does not exist.

As countries in Europe have presented plans to gradually lift the restrictions – Slovenia and Finland have been the latest to announce their desire of easing the lockdown now in place for preventive measures against COVID-19, Bosnia has registered sharp increase of the infection cases after relaxing the limitations. The country reported 93 new infections and two deaths in 24 hours as opposed to the 20 new cases during the previous day.

Brazilian coronavirus data is increasing as well. The latest update showed 449 new fatalities and the overall number of infections surpasses 78,000. Health Minister of the country Nelson Teich has even said that “Brazil is flying bling,” not knowing how much of the population is actually carrying the disease since most of them are not showing symptoms.

Although President Trump declared on Tuesday that “the worst is behind us” the United States has registered 19,690 new coronavirus cases, and 1,846 new deaths in the past 24 hours, according to worldometers.info. The country’s economy is taking the hardest hit since the Great Recession of the late 2000’s – the US GDP has dropped 4.8%, the officials reported on Wednesday.

Germany is also expecting a record recession due to the pandemic crisis. The country’s Economy Minister Peter Atmaier expects Germany’s economy to shrink by 6.3% in 2020. That will be the biggest fall in the country’s economy since the 1970s.

On the brighter side, a new-born baby in Syria recovered from COVID-19 after being treated in Izmir, Turkey. Baby Aziz was experiencing the difficulty of breathing, one of the common symptoms of the virus, and his recovery took nearly a month but now he has been discharged. The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds, who both have recovered from the coronavirus, have announced the birth of their healthy son. German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, which is working with Pfizer based in the US, has announced the beginning of the testing of a potential vaccine for the new coronavirus on volunteers. A small trial of 12 participants has been carried out since April 23, but now the trial will involve up to 200 participants within the 18-55 age group.

By Nini Dakhundaridze

Image source: The New York Times