Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are to spend the Easter holiday at home as lockdown measures intensify to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, with the global death toll rapidly approaching 100,000.
Governments have forced businesses to close and limited the movement of half the world’s population, halting economic activity and prompting the IMF to warn that the world faces its worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
About 17 million Americans have lost their jobs, prompting the US government to launch a US$2.3 trillion rescue package, while the EU late on Thursday struck a 500 billion euro (US$547.2 billion) deal to help hard-hit member states.
Photo: Bloomberg
The US is now emerging as the global hot spot of the virus. More than 1,700 people died on Thursday from almost 500,000 cases, the second-highest death toll of any country and the largest number of cases in the world.
Hundreds of deaths across Europe on Thursday helped drive the confirmed global toll to more than 94,000, with nearly half of the deaths reported in the past week.
However, spirits were lifted in the UK as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson — among the world’s most high-profile virus patients — was moved to a normal hospital ward after three days in intensive care.
In Europe and the US, officials sought solace in slightly improving figures.
Spain, the third-hardest-hit country, saw its lowest single-day toll in 17 days.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that the “fire started by the pandemic is starting to come under control.”
France also reported that fewer people were in intensive care for COVID-19, the first fall since the pandemic broke out.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said that the US was “going in the right direction” after a slight drop in the daily death rate from Wednesday’s record toll of 1,973.
In New York, the epicenter of the virus in the US, the rate of hospital admissions fell on Thursday.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the actions taken in the state were “flattening the curve,” referring to attempts to keep the death rate from spiking.
Easter pilgrimage sites across the Middle East, Europe and Asia were empty yesterday, shorn of the customary Easter holiday hustle.
The travel industry is one of the hardest-hit sectors, but the fallout is shaking every corner of the financial world.
The IMF, which has US$1 trillion in lending capacity, said that it was responding to calls from 90 countries for emergency financing.
“We anticipate the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression,” IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said, urging governments to provide lifelines to businesses and households.
Despite hopeful signs in Western nations and China, where the virus was first detected late last year, there are fears the worst is still to come in much of the developing world.
Brazilian authorities confirmed the first deaths in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, where overcrowding and poor sanitation have raised fears of a catastrophe.
There are similar fears in India, where hundreds of millions of poor people are becoming increasingly desperate.
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