World fears COVID-19 worse yet to come
   Date :30-Jun-2020

Medical staff carry a pat
 Medical staff carry a patient infected with the COVID-19 into an Airbus A400M at Guiana air-base 367 in Matoury near Cayenne, in the French overseas department of Guiana on Sunday. (AFP)
 
 
 
ROME :
 
10.1 million confirmed cases and over 5,01,000 deaths worldwide 
 
THE world surpassed two sobering coronavirus milestones on Sunday -- 5,00,000 confirmed deaths, 10 million confirmed cases -- and hit another high mark for daily new infections as Governments that attempted reopenings continued to backtrack and warn that worse news could be yet to come. Worldwide, there are 10.1 million confirmed cases and over 5,01,000 reported deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University of government reports. About 1 in 4 of those deaths – more than 1,25,000 – have been reported in the US.
 
The country with the next highest death toll is Brazil, with more than 57,000, or about 1 in 9. The true death toll from the virus, which first emerged in China late last year, is widely believed to be significantly higher. Experts say that especially early on, many victims died of COVID-19 without being tested for it. The World Health Organisation announced another daily record in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the world - topping over 1,89,000 in a single 24-hour period.
 
The tally eclipses the previous record a week earlier at over 1,83,000 cases, showing case counts continue to progress worldwide. Overall the US still has far and away the most total cases. At more than 24,50,000 - roughly twice that of Brazil. The number of actual cases worldwide is much higher. “COVID-19 has taken a very swift and very dangerous turn in Texas over just the past few weeks,” said Governor Greg Abbott, who allowed businesses to start reopening in early May but on Friday shut down bars and limited restaurant dining amid a spike in cases. California Governor Gavin Newsom rolled back reopenings of bars in seven counties, including Los Angeles.
 
He ordered them to close immediately and urged eight other counties to issue local health orders mandating the same. “Caution was thrown to the wind and so we are where we are,” DeSantis said. South Africa’s Health Minister warned that the country’s current surge of cases is expected to rapidly increase in the coming weeks and push hospitals to the limit. Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize said the current rise in infections has come from people who “moved back into the workplace. New clusters of cases at a Swiss nightclub and in the central English city of Leicester showed that the virus was still circulating widely in Europe, though not with the rapidly growing infection rate seen in parts of the US, Latin America and India. Poland and France, meanwhile, attempted a step toward normalcy as they held elections that had been delayed by the virus. Britain’s Government, meanwhile, is considering whether a local lockdown is needed for the central English city of Leicester amid reports about a spike in COVID-19 among its Asian community. It would be Britain’s first local lockdown.