Coronavirus: Global Recoveries Surpass 1 Million

Roughly a third of those infected with the coronavirus have now fully recovered – confirmed coronavirus cases stand at 3,275,483 and the number of recoveries has topped a million, reaching 1,031,788.

231,577 have lost their lives fighting the virus – that makes up 18% of closed coronavirus cases. 3% (54,590) of active COVID-19 cases are serious or critical. While the numbers are by no means small, the global coronavirus data looks much more promising than it did a week ago.

A positive milestone has been reported from South Korea and Hong Kong – no new local cases have been detected. South Korea officials announced on Thursday that the country has seen no new local cases for the first time since February 29. Topping the good news, Hong Kong has reported no new cases for five straight days. Down south, Australia and New Zealand have also made their contributions to the positive milestone – on Wednesday Australia had just nine new cases and New Zealand had only two new coronavirus patients.

Moving on to the west, Eurozone has announced that the economy has shrunk by 3,8% in the first quarter, recording the hardest hit since 1995. While economies are taking it rough, daily tallies keep falling in European countries. Italy’s death reports went down from Wednesday’s 323 to 285 on Thursday. British PM Boris Johnson announced on Thursday that the country is now on a downward slope and “past the peak of this disease.” Still, the country registered 674 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours. Denmark began loosening the bans gradually in mid-April and as the State Serum Institute has reported, the relaxing of restrictions has not caused the acceleration of COVID-19 spread among the population. The WHO has said that 21 out of 44 European states that had coronavirus restrictions imposed have now started to ease them. The organization does not seem to be approving this, however, as Hans Kluge, the Head of the WHO Regional Office for Europe noted that “this virus is unforgiving. We must remain vigilant, persevere, and be patient."  However, although the region is slowly going back to the life we’ve known before the pandemic, travel within Europe still is “not on the agenda,” as dismissed by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Poland plans to make that exception from May 4 for workers and students who often enter from neighboring states; they will no longer be required to go through the 14-day mandatory quarantine.

The US coronavirus cases have topped one million and the country’s fatalities now stand at 62,535. As CNN has noted, the coronavirus death toll of the States has now, by far, passed the US troop death toll in the Vietnam War – during the 10 years of it, 58,220 Americans lost their lives. The country’s economy was already taking it hard and now at least 3,8 million US citizens have filed for unemployment benefits in just one week, rounding the benefit-seekers’ number to 30 million US citizens.

By Nini Dakhundaridze

Image source: Reuters