Worldwide deaths due to Covid-19 went pass 64,000 as the total number of infected cases were nearing 1.2 million. In Sri Lanka, the number of Coronavirus affected people stood at 162 with five dead.
The USA’s effected number of cases was racing towards 300,000 with over 7,900 deaths. Spain and Italy’s effected cases were almost identical with over 125,000 each. But Italy had more deaths – over 15,400 to Spain’s over 11,750. Yesterday’s highest number of deaths were registered by United Kingdom (708), closely followed by Italy (681), Spain (546) and USA (492).
Meanwhile. New York state’s coronavirus toll has risen at a devastating pace to 3,565 deaths, up from 2,935 the previous day, the largest 24-hour jump recorded there. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that Madrid will extend the country’s coronavirus lockdown until April 25, as Spain’s death toll reached 11,744.
Iran’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has climbed to 3,452, with 158 more fatalities recorded over the past 24 hours, Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpur said. Globally the death toll surged past 60,000 on Saturday, according to the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, amid over 1.1 million cases.
New York state’s coronavirus toll rose at a devastating pace to 3,565 deaths up from 2,935 the previous day, the largest 24-hour jump recorded there. The state has now recorded 113,704 positive cases - 63,306 in New York City, where 2,624 have died - just 6,000 short of hard-hit Italy’s total number of cases.
In his daily briefing on Saturday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said infections could peak in the state in anywhere from four to 14 days. Nigeria plans to create a 500 billion naira ($1.39bn) coronavirus fund to strengthen its healthcare infrastructure to tackle the virus, the government said.
Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed, House of Representatives speaker Femi Gbajabiamila and Senate President Ahmad Lawan agreed in a meeting that the crisis intervention fund would pull in cash as loans from various special government accounts and get the rest from grants and loans from multilateral institutions, a statement said. “This cisis intervention fund is to be utilised to upgrade healthcare facilities,” Ahmed said in the statement.
The European Commission has approved a series of multi-billion-euro state support packages for Greece, Poland and Portugal to help soften the economic impact of the coronavirus through grants and loan guarantees.
The Commission, which enforces EU anti-trust regulation, loosened its rules last month to allow EU governments to support businesses and banks after factories began to fall quiet and Europeans were ordered to stay home to stop the virus spreading.
In a series of statements, the Commission approved a 13-billion-euro state aid programme for the Portuguese economy, a 22-billion-euro plan of state guarantees for Poland and a two-billion-euro scheme for Greece.
The schemes were judged not to distort EU competition.
The United Arab Emirates has extended a de facto overnight curfew indefinitely to disinfect public areas to fight the spread of coronavirus.
The UAE’s disinfection drive, which consists of spraying streets, parks and public transport facilities, runs from 8pm (16:00 GMT) to 6am and people must stay at home during those hours, state-run news agency WAM said. (Agencies)