Live Updates: Global COVID-19 Death Toll Tops 90,000 - Johns Hopkins University

PARIS (Sputnik) - French Finance and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire on Thursday announced a 100 billion euro ($109.4 billion) stimulus package to shore up businesses hit by the coronavirus outbreak.

"In light of an unprecedented health crisis, we are doing all we can to save our enterprises and protect jobs by ramping up economic crisis measures. The sum went from 45 billion euros to 100 billion," he tweeted.

The government will also increase the reserves of the Economic and Social Development Fund from 75 million euros to a billion. The state fund gives direct loans to larger SMEs and mid-cap enterprises. Some 755,000 firms have already applied for a credit line.

France went into lockdown on March 17 to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, closing nonessential businesses and forcing many workers to take leave. The government has promised to pay 84 percent of employees' base salary if companies declare temporary unemployment, a measure estimated to cost over 20 billion euros.

PARIS (Sputnik) - The number of coronavirus-related deaths in France passed 12,000 on Thursday after 1,341 people died in the past 24 hours, the country's top health official said.

"Since March 1, 8,044 people have died in hospitals. Forty-two percent of the deceased were over 70 years old," Jerome Salomon said, adding 424 patients died in hospitals in the past day.

An additional 4,166 people died from virus-related complications in retirement homes since the start of the outbreak, bringing the country's cumulative death toll to 12,210, he said.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The COVID-19 death toll in the United States has risen above 15,000, according to the latest data published by Johns Hopkins University at 2:00pm EST (1800 GMT) on Wednesday.

According to the university, which provides aggregate figures of the coronavirus outbreak across the globe, at least 15,774 people have died in the United States as a result of contracting COVID-19. Meanwhile, the total number of confirmed cases in the US since the start of the outbreak now stands at 363,851, the highest number of infections in any country.

Those COVID-19 patients who did not start treatment timely and ignored doctors' recommendations have seen their condition deteriorated, Russian Health Minister said.

TORONTO (Sputnik) - The number of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Canada is expected to peak in late spring, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a daily briefing on the pandemic on Thursday.

Trudeau’s announcement comes after the head of Canada’s Public Health Agency, Dr. Theresa Tam, unveiled modeling data on Thursday, that indicates that 11,000 to 22,000 deaths are expected over the course of the pandemic.

"The initial peak - the top of the curve - may be in late spring with the end of the first wave in the summer," Trudeau said.

The prime minister added that this will be the new normal until a vaccine is developed for COVID-19.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Canada has exceeded 19,700 and the number of deaths has increased to 461, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

HELSINKI (Sputnik) - The Estonian authorities are planning to test the entire country for the coronavirus disease, starting with people living in the worst-hit island of Saaremaa, Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said on Thursday.

"We, in the government, decided to organize mass testing for ... the virus. The first mass testing along with scientific research will be conducted in Saaremaa. Based on its results, mass testing will begin with studies across the country," Reinsalu wrote on Facebook.

Currently, people over 80 and patients with severe chronic diseases are prioritized for testing. Doctors, police officers, rescuers, social workers and those who show symptoms of the disease are also directed for examination. Since January 31, more than 26,000 tests have been carried out in Estonia.

According to the nation's Health Ministry, the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 has reached 1,207, of which 37 percent — or 446 people — are on island of Saaremaa alone, whose population is 30,000.

On March 12, the Estonian government declared a state of emergency until May 1. All cultural and recreation sites, and educational institutions have been closed. The government has also temporarily suspended visits to social welfare institutions, hospitals and prisons.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Global death toll from the coronavirus infection has surpassed 90,000, according to the latest statistics compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The number of deaths currently stands at 90,057, including 17,669 in Italy, 15,238 in Spain and 14,831 in the United States.

The total number of confirmed cases worldwide now stands at 1,506,936, the number of recoveries at 340,630, the university says.

NEW YORK (Sputnik) - The US state of New York has so far registered 159,937 cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), including 87,028 of them confirmed in the city, health department data revealed on Thursday.

The results table revealed that 10,621 new cases were reported in the state, while a total of 26,396 New Yorkers were tested for COVID-19.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the state had seen the highest increase in single-day fatalities from COVID-19 on Wednesday - 799 - bringing the death toll to 7,067.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has indefinitely extended the nationwide restrictions on people's movement in light of the coronavirus epidemic, government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said on Thursday.

"We are extending the duration of movement restrictions. We are extending them indefinitely. We will reconsider the restrictions on a weekly basis," Orban said, as quoted by his spokesman on Twitter.

The prime minister added that he had granted mayors an extraordinary right to introduce additional, "more severe" measures in their regions during the Catholic Easter holidays.

Hungary has been in a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 epidemic since March 12. In mid-March, the country banned mass events and shut down its borders for foreigners. Since March, the movement between the cities and towns have been restricted too.

As of Thursday, the country has confirmed a total of 980 coronavirus cases, including 66 deaths.

New York State has lost 7,067 lives due to the coronavirus with the record death toll of 799 on Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. 

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that his country will not return to normality until a coronavirus vaccine is developed. That could be a long way off, he added. 

BERLIN (Sputnik) - Friedrich Merz, the top candidate to lead German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), has warned that economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis could collapse the European Union.

"Europe's collapse cannot, unfortunately, be ruled out. Neither can another eurozone crisis. That is why we must do everything to unite Europe and help it avoid a second and deeper euro crisis," Merz said in an interview with the Rheinische Post daily.

The 64-year-old, who has recently recovered from COVID-19, said Germany should not be bailing out Europe together with a couple of other countries. He argued that the pandemic's economic burden on the 19-nation eurogroup was greater than in 2008.

EU leaders failed this week to agree conditions for emergency loans that the eurozone's bailout mechanism, ESM, is asked to give to the hardest-hit member countries, with Italy and Spain saying they should not be stigmatised over the pandemic they did not cause.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands increased by 1,213 to 21,762 in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said on Thursday, adding that the death toll reached 2,396 people.

According to the health authorities, the country registered 148 coronavirus-related fatalities over the past day.

Almost 8,000 people infected with the coronavirus are currently undergoing treatment in hospitals.

انطلاقاً من اهتمام المملكة وحرصها والتزامها بصحة وسلامة الشعب اليمني، فقد استمرت المملكة في دعمها للأمم المتحدة ولهذا العام، وساهمت ب500 مليون دولار أمريكي لخطة الاستجابة الإنسانية للأمم المتحدة في اليمن ، بالإضافة إلى 25 مليون دولار أمريكي لمكافحة تفشي جائحة كورونا COVID-19

— فيصل بن فرحان (@FaisalbinFarhan) April 9, 2020

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.1%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both gained 0.98% and 0.97% respectively.

BEIJING (Sputnik) - The authorities in the Chinese southeastern city of Suifenhe, which has seen an increase in COVID-19 cases imported from neighbouring Russia, have decided to transform an office building into a hospital for the coronavirus patients, the city government said on Thursday.

According to the government's website, the authorities decided to establish the specialised hospital in a 13-storey administrative building.

According to preliminary estimates, the hospital will be able to accommodate 600 beds and will open on Saturday. At least 400 doctors will work at the facility.

After air traffic between Russia and China was suspended, many Chinese nationals remaining in Russia have been trying to return home via checkpoints in the Heilongjiang province, where Suifenhe is located. According to the latest data, 127 imported cases of the disease have been registered in the province. There are also 154 asymptomatic carriers, all of them citizens of China.

In response to the growing number of imported cases in the city, the Chinese authorities decided to lock down all residential buildings there and temporarily close the Pogranichny-Suifenhe checkpoint to passenger traffic.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Australian police officers have seized the black box from the Ruby Princess cruise ship as part of an ongoing investigation into the cruise operator's knowledge about coronavirus-infected passengers.

"About 7pm yesterday (Wednesday 8 April 2020) [09:00 GMT], strike force detectives boarded the vessel to conduct inquiries, which included speaking with crew members, as well as gathering and seizing the voyage data recorder (black box) and other items of interest to the investigation", the police wrote on its website.

Police officers also questioned the captain of the cruise ship.

Earlier in April, the police launched the criminal investigation to find out whether the cruise operator had known there were people with COVID-19 on board the liner before it entered a port in Australia and let off passengers without going through quarantine procedures.

The Ruby Princess with its 2,700 passengers docked at the port in Sydney on 19 March, and is believed to have become Australia’s biggest source of COVID-19 infections.

Passengers were allowed to disembark, and over 600 COVID-19 cases, including 15 deaths, have since been connected to them. The ship is now docked in New South Wales as its 1,040 crew members are undergoing medical assessments.

WARSAW (Sputnik) - Poland has extended an external border closure until 3 May due to the coronavirus pandemic, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday.

"For the next 20 days, as per the international law, the borders will be closed and the previous standards will be applied until 3 May," Morawiecki said at a briefing.

The closure of schools, as well as a complete ban on international flights and rail services, have been prolonged for 14 more days, the prime minister noted.

Cafes, restaurants, shopping malls, beauty salons and other similar businesses will remain closed until 19 April.

The entertainment sector, according to Morawiecki, will be closed until further notice.

Poland closed its borders to foreigners and stopped all inbound and outbound air and rail traffic on 13 March in a bid to stem the spread of COVID-19. The country has so far confirmed a total of 5,341 COVID-19 cases, including 164 deaths.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US Treasury and Federal Reserve have approved the creation of new and expanded programmes to provide up to $2.3 trillion in financing to small and medium businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday.

“The combination of these facilities will provide up to $2.3 trillion in new financing to support American workers by helping American businesses preserve jobs, sustain operations, and continue to serve their customers”, Mnuchin said in a statement.

According to the US Labor Department's report, the number of claims slightly decreased compared to last week, when 6.9 mln jobless claims were filed.

The latest data means that nearly 17 million workers have lost their jobs since mid-March.

India prepared a four-year investment plan for its 'India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package' on Thursday.

The key objectives of the package include mounting an emergency response to slow and limit COVID-19 in India through the development of diagnostics and COVID-19-dedicated treatment facilities, as well as the centralised procurement of essential medical equipment and drugs required for the treatment of infected persons, bio-security preparedness and pandemic research.

The Indian health ministry has already distributed around $500 million to all 35 states so that they may cope with the COVID emergency.

A Thai woman has contracted COVID-19 for the second time after having defeated the virus while she was in Bangkok in the middle of March, Thailand's media reported citing sources in the health department.

The woman was first tested positive after returning from overseas. She was admitted to the hospital where she recovered from the disease.

However, she experienced a sore throat in early April and took another test which revealed that she tested positive for the coronavirus.

SEOUL (Sputnik) - South Korea has decided to halt visa-free entry to the country and suspend agreements with other countries concerning short-term visas due to fears of the coronavirus, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday in a press release.

"The foreign and justice ministries of South Korea have decided to implement measures to suspend short-term visas and temporarily halt visa-free travel agreements. Tougher entry procedures aim to reduce the number of foreigners arriving in the country so that South Korean citizens could worry less and use quarantine resources more effectively", the ministry said.

South Korea suspended visa-free entry for citizens of 90 countries that had previously barred entry for South Koreans, according to the ministry.

SEOUL, April 9 (Sputnik) - South Korea has decided to halt visa-free entry to the country and suspend agreements with other countries concerning short-term visas due to fears of the coronavirus, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday in a press release.

"The foreign and justice ministries of South Korea have decided to implement measures to suspend short-term visas and temporarily halt visa-free travel agreements. Tougher entry procedures aim to reduce the number of foreigners arriving in the country so that South Korean citizens could worry less and use quarantine resources more effectively," the ministry said.

South Korea suspended visa-free entry for citizens of 90 countries that had previously barred entry for South Koreans, according to the ministry.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Korea has reached 10,423, with 6,973 recoveries and 204 fatalities. According to the authorities, 66 foreigners are among the patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian Health Ministry warned on Thursday against using split air conditioners in areas with high risk of COVID-19 spreading, as conditioners increase chances for people to be infected.

"Usage of room conditioners (split systems) should be excluded in areas of high risk of COVID-19 spreading, as they, in fact, increase the risk of being infected due to contributing to high concentrations of infectious aerosol in the conditions of blocked natural ventilation", the ministry's recommendations on COVID-19 prevention, diagnostics and treatment read.

Usage of recirculating air cleaners, including those with ultraviolet bactericidal radiation sources, is not efficient for reducing the risk of COVID-19 spreading, due to insufficient productivity, the Russian Health Ministry added, calling for opting for regular ventilation or efficient mechanical ventilation.

Overall cases rose to 152,446 from 146,690 on Wednesday.

Seoul will compensate 146 South Korean medical facilities engaged in the fight against coronavirus pandemic with 102 billion won ($84 million), the country’s Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said on Thursday.

"After verification and recommendation by the commission for the discussion of compensation for damages, the central coronavirus response headquarters announces that on April 10, approximately 102 billion won will be allocated to 146 medical institutions affected by the fight against COVID-2019," the statement read.

According to a statement released by the authority that is coordinating South Korea's fight against the coronavirus, 53 medical facilities will be compensated for temporary closures and reordering to face the pandemic; five hospitals can expect compensations between 3 and 5 billion won; and one hospital is set to receive over 5 billion won.

The statement went on to say that the list of facilities that bore the burden of tackling the pandemic will constantly be revised and updated, with pharmacies and shops likely to be included.

South Korea is now confidently past the peak of the infection, with only 39 new cases registered over 24 hours by midnight on Thursday, the lowest since late February. Nearly 7,000 people have recovered from over 10,000 of those infected, while 204 have died.

The real number of COVID-19 cases in Mexico could be eight times higher than official estimates, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell has said.

Lopez-Gatell at a news conference late on Wednesday said that Mexico has 3,181 confirmed cases from about 17,000 tests that were conducted, with 174 deaths from the disease. Applying an epidemiological calculation method known as sentinel surveillance, he estimated that there may be more than 26,500 cases in the country.

"From what you can see, the epidemic is eight times bigger," Lopez-Gatell said.

The coronavirus pandemic arrived in Mexico with a delay compared to Europe and the US, but April has seen cases multiply.

Russia's Prosecutor General Office called on Thursday for banning an online community promulgating rejection of self-isolation, declared in the country to contain COVID-19.

"An online community 'No to self-isolation' has been detected in VKontakte [social network]. Information about the need to ignore measures for isolating the population can be found there ... This group also covers campaigns calling for going out to show disagreement with self-isolation," the Prosecutor General Office said in a press release.

Apart from that, one person has left a comment in VKontakte social network, calling for "burning infected people down instead of hospitalizing them". The comment was related to a post focusing on the situation in Russia's central-eastern Kirov region.

The community will be banned, and a criminal case can be initiated over the calls for burning people down. Relevant materials have already been submitted to the regional department of the Federal Security Service.

Russia's ChemRar, a high-tech pharmaceutical group of companies, plans to start producing the Favipiravir antiviral drug, which can be efficient against the coronavirus infection, by May, Andrey Ivashchenko, the group's chairman, told Sputnik.

"Today, our main task is to ensure the production of the drug by May in order to start treating patients in hospitals. Afterward, we will increase production in order to satisfy the potential demand and move on to drug retail sales," Ivashchenko said.

Oman has registered 38 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of those infected to 457, the country’s Health Ministry said on Thursday.

"The Ministry of Health announced the registration of 38 coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the sultanate to 457 with two fatalities," the ministry said in a statement.

Health Minister Ahmed Mohammed Al-Saidi said at a press conference on Thursday that the number of recoveries from the coronavirus disease in the country had increased to 109.

Al-Saidi added that the number of COVID-19 cases was increasing, noting that the country had not yet reached the peak of the outbreak. The minister stressed the importance of preventive measures taken by Muscat to combat COVID-19.

The Afghan Office of the National Security Council said on Thursday that 100 Taliban prisoners would be released later in the day as part of the government's efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

"Pursuant to President [Ashraf] Ghani’s decree of March 11, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will release 100 Taliban prisoners today based on their health condition, age and length of remaining sentence as part of our efforts for peace and containment of COVID-19," spokesman Javid Faisal wrote on Twitter.

On Wednesday, another 100 Taliban prisoners were released in accordance with the same decree.

Violence continues in Afghanistan despite the signing of a peace deal between the US and Taliban on February 29 that guaranteed the withdrawal of US troops from the country, in exchange for the militant organization’s agreement to enter into talks with the Afghan government. The Taliban also must ensure that the country does not become a safe haven for terrorists.

People who have recovered from the coronavirus are becoming donors for COVID-19 patients to facilitate the treatment, Deputy Moscow Mayor Anastasia Rakova said on Thursday.

"We are following the developments of our colleagues all the time. Similar researches are being conducted successfully in China, Germany and the United States. We hope that the new method will enable us to respond to the coronavirus pandemic more efficiently," Rakova told reporters.

According to her, the Sklifosovsky Scientific Research Institute of Emergency Care and the city hospital number 52 have already carried out the first transfusion procedures. Recovered COVID-19 patients have donated plasma to currently infected people.

Recovered patients' blood contains antibodies and can therefore be used for treatment, Rakova said, adding that the clinical committee on coronavirus response has approved this technology.

Australia has registered fewer than 100 new cases of the coronavirus infection in a single day for the first time in over three weeks, the country’s health minister, Greg Hunt, said on Thursday.

“In the 24 hours to this morning’s report, there was an increase of 96 cases. This is the first time in over three weeks that fewer than 100 people have been added to the list of those with coronavirus. That is an exceptionally important development for Australia,” Hunt said at a news briefing.

The minister went on to caution against relaxing measures in response to the positive news ahead of the Easter holidays, saying that “the virus does not take a holiday.”

According to Hunt, the toll of COVID-19 infections in Australia currently stands at 6,068, with 51 deaths as a result.

Russia has registered 1,459 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, with the total count exceeding 10,000, the country's coronavirus response center said on Thursday.

"Over the past 24 hours, Russia has recorded 1,459 COVID-19 cases in 50 regions," the center said, adding that the country has so far confirmed 10,131 COVID-19 cases in 81 regions.

Of all the new cases, 857 have been registered in Moscow, 199 in Moscow region and 44 in St. Petersburg.

The death toll has increased by 13 to 76 over the past 24 hours.

A total of 118 people have recovered from the coronavirus and have been discharged from hospitals across Russia over the past 24 hours, the center said, adding that the total number of recoveries has reached 698.

South Korea has extended for another three months the visas of approximately 60,000 foreigners whose term of residence in the country should expire soon to ensure they do not visit immigration services during the coronavirus pandemic, the country's Ministry of Justice said on Thursday.

"The Ministry of Justice decided to extend for three months visas for approximately 60,000 registered foreigners (including ethnic Koreans), whose period of residence is expected to expire soon, in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in local communities," the statement said.

The number of people infected with the coronavirus in India increased by 540 to 5,734, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.

The total toll includes 5,095 currently active cases, 472 recoveries and 166 coronavirus-related deaths. Also, one infected person left the country.

The Indian government late last month imposed one of world’s largest quarantine measures, ordering the country’s nearly 1.4 billion people to stay at home until at least April 14. All domestic and international flights have also been suspended.

ussia has nor received a request from Venezuela to provide the third batch of humanitarian assistance in light of COVID-19 pandemic, Russian Ambassador to Caracas Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov told Sputnik.

"There have been no requests through the embassy as for the current moment," Melik-Bagdasarov said, answering the relevant question.

According to the diplomat, Russian and Venezuelan medics are in constant contact over the situation with COVID-19.

Venezuela has already received 30,000 test systems to diagnose coronavirus from Russia.

The number of deaths from COVID-19 in Germany has exceeded the 2,000 mark — reaching 2,107 — from over 108,000 reported cases by midnight Thursday, the official Robert Koch Institute (RKI) dashboard shows.

Over the course of the day, just under 5,000 people were newly diagnosed with COVID-19 and 246 succumbed to it.

At the same time, over 3,600 people had completely recovered, bringing the total number of survivors to just under 50,000.

The southern region of Bavaria remains the most affected, with over 28,000 cases with the North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Wurttemberg both at around 21,000 cases in total.

Although the mortality rate from the disease has increased to 1.8 percent from about 0.5 percent throughout most of March, it remains among the lowest in the world.

The STOXX 600 index went up 1.2% as of 07:02 GMT, rebounding more than 5% this week.

Oil and gas stocks jumped 1.9% ahead of a meeting of the world's major oil producers.

The majority of COVID-19 cases in New York were imported from Europe, not from Asia, media reported, citing a research.

"The majority is clearly European," Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who is one of the researchers behind the study awaiting peer review, said as quoted by The New York Times.

According to the outlet, citing the study, coronavirus began to spread in the New York area by mid-February, a few weeks before the first case was confirmed there.

The research focused on the coronavirus genomes taken from samples provided by New York residents after mid-March.

Notably, a separate group of samples was studied by scientists from New York Grossman School of Medicine, who came to the same conclusions.

The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Kyrgyzstan has increased by 10 to 280, the republic's coronavirus response centre said on Thursday.

"On April 9, 2020, ten new cases of confirmed COVID-19 were registered in the republic," a center spokesman said.

He said two of the newly infected were medics. The number of people who contacted laboratory-confirmed patients with COVID-19 is 6,268.

Thus, the number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in Kyrgyzstan has reached 280, of whom 34 were doctors. Four people have died. An emergency situation regime was introduced in the republic in connection with the disease outbreak. A state of emergency was imposed in some cities, including the capital.

"Over 1 million coronavirus tests have been conducted in the Russian Federation. As many as 171,000 people remain under doctors' control," the watchdog said in a statement.

Over 1 million tests to detect COVID-19 have been conducted in Russia so far, with 171,000 people remaining under medical supervision due to suspicions they may be infected, the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing said on Thursday.

Russia has confirmed 8,672 COVID-19 cases in 81 regions, with 63 fatalities.