Global coronavirus COVID-19 cases surge over 32.76 lakh, death toll crosses 2.33 lakh

The total number of coronavirus COVID-19 cases across 187 nations spiralled towards 32,76,373 and the death toll stood at 2,33,998 at 11.45 pm (IST) on Friday (May 1), according to Bing COVID-19 tracker.

With the highest numbers both in positive cases and death toll, the US continues to remain the worst-hit with a total of  11,13,437 cases. It is followed by Spain with 2,42,988 cases, Italy with  2,07,428 cases, the UK with  1,77,454 cases, Germany with 1,63,542 cases and France with  1,30,185 cases.

With a massive jump, the US has witnessed the highest death toll across all the nations at 64,715, followed by Italy at 28,236, the UK at  27,510, Spain at 24,824 and France at 24,594.

In the US, New York's schools and colleges will remain shut through the end of the academic year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov Andrew Cuomo said Friday. The order, which applies to 4.2 million students statewide, continues a shutdown that had been set to expire May 15. The Democratic governor said it is simply too risky to reopen when the virus is still sending nearly 1,000 people into the hospital every day.

"We don't think it's possible to do that in a way that would keep our children and students and educators safe, so we're going to have the schools remain closed for the rest of the year, we're going to continue the distance learning programs," Cuomo said. "We must protect our children," he said. "Every parent and citizen feels that." A decision about whether to allow summer school inside classroom buildings will be deferred until the end of May, he said. Whenever schools are allowed to reopen, each district's plan would need state approval. The state's largest school district, in New York City, had already determined it could not reopen before the scheduled end of the school year in June.

In Italy, deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic climbed by 269 on Friday, down from 285 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new infections stood at 1,965 against 1,872 on Thursday. People registered as currently carrying the illness declined to 100,943 from 101,551 on Thursday. There were 1,578 people in intensive care on Friday against a previous 1,694, maintaining a long-running decline. Of those originally infected, 78,249 were declared recovered against 75,945 a day earlier. A total of 1.399 million people had been tested for the virus against 1.355 million the day before, out of a population of around 60 million.

Spain's government expects that the Eurozone's fourth-largest economy will shrink by 9.2 per cent in 2020 and that unemployment will reach 19 per cent of the working-age population. Deputy Prime Minister Nadia Calvino announced the grim forecast on Friday when she explained Spain's economic stability plan that it has presented to the European Union. This comes a day after Spain's government said that the nation's economy had shrunk by 5.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2020, ending 25 consecutive quarters of positive economic activity dating back to 2013.

Calvino said the government expects the economy to rebound strong, with a growth of 6.8 per cent in 2021. Hundreds of thousands of workers have been furloughed since Spain applied strict stay-at-home rules on March 14 when it declared a state of emergency that is still in effect.
The government unveiled this week a complex series of guidelines it will follow to reactivate the economy and social life of the country over the coming weeks and months as long as there is not another jump in COVID-19 infections.

The UK has shot past its 100,000 daily coronavirus tests target set for the end of April with 122,347 testing on April 30, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced on Friday. Addressing the daily Downing Street briefing, the senior minister hailed the audacious testing goal being met by a coordinated team effort as he revealed a further 739 deaths from COVID-19, taking the country's toll from the pandemic to 27,510.

The criteria set by the government for people accessing coronavirus tests cover over 25 million National Health Service (NHS) staff on the frontlines of the pandemic, key workers and others who need to leave the house to go to their job. Hancock said that testing will form the basis "for getting Britain back on her feet" and the easing of the lockdown in place to keep a lid on the rate of infection, referred to as R, with work underway to recruit the 18,00 contact tracers to keep track of the deadly virus.

Professor John Newton, Director of Health Improvement at Public Health England, joined the Cabinet minister as the UK's national coronavirus testing coordinator and declared that the country had succeeded in putting in place world-leading testing facilities.