World wages war on deadly virus as death toll hits 9,000
By People Daily, March 20, 2020Rome, Thursday
World powers were on a war footing against the spiralling coronavirus pandemic on Thursday despite a sign of hope from China where zero new domestic cases were reported for the first time.
US President Donald Trump ordered sweeping new action against the pandemic and declared himself a war president. He signed a $100 billion emergency aid package to provide free coronavirus testing for those who need it, sick pay and paid leave.
Trump also announced the deployment of military hospital ships while, in Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a dramatic appeal to citizens.
Italy extended its lockdown after suffering the world’s highest single-day death toll—475—while Europe and the US unleashed nearly a trillion dollars to prop up the teetering global economy.
Across the planet, the death toll has risen to over 9,000 with more than 217,000 infections reported. As countries tried to stem the mounting crisis, Australia and New Zealand moved to seal off their borders with unprecedented entry bans aimed at halting the march of Covid-19.
China marked a major milestone by listing no new domestic infections for the first time since the outbreak first erupted in the central city of Wuhan in December, although a spike in imported cases threatened its progress.
But elsewhere the pandemic was worsening quickly, with over 4,100 deaths in Europe—exceeding the 3,400 fatalities in Asia.
Dire news came out of Italy on Wednesday which reported 475 new deaths, the highest single-day toll of any country, despite having imposed a national shutdown on March 12 that has been copied around the world. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the lockdown would be prolonged to April 3, shattering hopes that Italy’s methods might herald a quick end to the crisis.
“We will not be able to return immediately to life as it was before,” he said.
In Spain, the health ministry reported 209 new deaths, bringing the total to 767, and a jump in infections to 17,147.
With countries paralysed by the pandemic and stock markets imploding, policymakers this week unleashed a wave of measures to shore up the global economy.
The European Central Bank late Wednesday announced a 750-billion-euro bond-buying scheme dubbed the “big bazooka”, days after it unveiled a big-bank stimulus package that failed to calm markets.
Merkel in an unprecedented televised address said: “Not since the Second World War has our country faced a challenge that depends so much on our solidarity.”Cases in Germany soared past 10,000 on Thursday with over 2,800 new infections reported in a single day.
World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to “come together as one against a common enemy: an enemy against humanity.” -AFP