British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday battled COVID-19 in intensive care as death tolls in the US and Europe reached new heights from the pandemic sweeping the world.
Johnson, 55, was moved into intensive care when his condition worsened 10 days after his diagnosis.
A senior Cabinet minister said that he had been given oxygen, but had not been put on a ventilator.
His case has highlighted the global reach of the virus.
The disease’s relentless march across the planet has now claimed more than 75,000 lives out of more than 1.3 million confirmed cases, with warnings that much worse is yet to come.
The number of daily deaths in Spain rose to 743 yesterday, after France on Monday recorded a new surge of 833 fatalities, its highest daily toll since the epidemic began, and Italy saw its death toll shoot up to 636 from 525 the day before, after days of dropping.
The US — which has by far the most confirmed coronavirus cases in the world — recorded 1,150 deaths over 24 hours, Johns Hopkins University said.
In New York state, the US epicenter of the crisis, the rate of growth in the death toll appeared to be slowing.
“New York City is fighting back. We have an invisible enemy. We have a ferocious enemy, but this city is fighting back with everything we’ve got,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The virus is stretching medical facilities to the limit and the WHO warned that there is a global shortage of 6 million nurses.
People around the world have been forced to improvise as supplies run short, with bodies packed in cardboard coffins in Ecuador and a mosque converted into a makeshift mask factory in Iran.
Governments around the world are also scrambling to put together rescue packages.
With the ink barely dry on a US$2 trillion economic rescue package passed by the US Congress, US President Donald Trump said he favored another massive spending program, again roughly US$2 trillion, but this time targeting infrastructure projects.
“We built the greatest economy in the world. I’ll do it a second time,” he said.
EU finance ministers are expected to clinch a deal to use the eurozone’s 410 billion euro (US$447 billion) bailout fund to fight the virus, but the bloc remains divided on pooling debt to issue “coronabonds.”
Stock markets have chosen to see the glass as half-full so far this week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday soaring 1,600 points as traders saw hope the pandemic was reaching its apex.
Markets were also up in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
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