Panic builds over ‘crippled’ economies

Rome/Madrid/London, april 19

The global death toll from Covid-19 pandemic soared to over 1,63,000 on Sunday with more than 23,73,000 people infected across 210 countries. Amid the heroic efforts to control the virus spread and treat patients, there is also panic over the crippling of economies due to the extended lockdowns. Pressure is building on many of the severely-hit countries to reopen businesses and ease the strict lockdowns. Impatience has been growing in Italy as Italians debated on Sunday their first cautious steps out of a lockdown that has left an estimated half of the working population seeking government support.

The growing sense that weeks of confinement were ending forced an unnamed source in Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s office to tell media that “nothing will change”. But some officials seem to think that extending the strictest lockdown measures beyond their May 3 deadline might simply not work. The daily death rate has fallen to half of what it was at the peak of the crisis and people feeling less frightened may simply start going out.

Conte is expected to hear on Monday the conclusions of a re-opening taskforce headed by former Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao. The pressure on Conte from the leaders of Italy’s northern industrial heartland is also growing intense. The heads of Milan’s Lombardy and Venice’s Veneto regions have both warned that they might soon have to begin reopening businesses on their own.

The La Repubblica daily said most of the funds approved by Conte in a 25-billion-euro ($27-billion) package had already been spent.

Britain, on the other hand is not considering lifting the lockdown imposed almost four weeks ago. UK is near the peak of the health crisis in which more than 16,000 people have died. Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said report that the government was considering lifting the lockdown in phases over the coming months was not correct.

With hospitals under strain, health workers have criticised the government’s advice that PPEs could be re-used, as supplies run low. An 84-tonne delivery of PPE from Turkey, which was to arrive on Sunday, has been delayed. MPs will have to undergo a temperature test before entry into the House of Commons as Parliament resumes after Easter recess on Tuesday.

Spain, saw a sharp drop in daily virus death toll on Sunday with the number falling to 410 from 565. The total fatalities in Spain, the third hardest-hit country in the world after the US and Italy, have reached 20,453, the health ministry said. The country has allowed some relaxations in restrictions imposed earlier in view of the slowing death rate.

However, in Singapore the coronavirus has continued to spread in the crowded dormitories for migrant workers, accounting for a majority of the 596 new cases detected on Sunday. As per the health ministry, only 25 of the new cases involve Singaporeans or foreigners with permanent residence. With this, the total cases has gone up to 6,588, the highest in Southeast Asia.

In the USA, New York reported 540 more deaths overnight, a reduction of 25 per cent from the previous day, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, but the state still remained the epicentre of the pandemic in the US. In planning for the rollback of restrictions, Cuomo said a complete re-opening of the economy will only be possible with vastly expanded testing. —Agencies

514 new cases in Pak

Islamabad: Pakistan has reported 514 new cases of the COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases in the country to 7,993 with 159 deaths. The Ministry of National Health Services said the new cases were reported mostly from Punjab and Sindh provinces and included 16 deaths in the past 24 hours.

Russia sees record cases

Moscow: Russia reported a record rise of 6,060 new cases over the previous 24 hours, bringing its nationwide tally to 42,853. The cases in Russia began rising sharply this month, although it reported far fewer infections than many western European countries in the outbreak’s early stages.