(Reuters) – Global coronavirus cases surpassed 1 million on Thursday with more than 51,000 deaths as the pandemic further exploded in the United States and the death toll climbed in Spain and Italy, according to a tally by a U.S. university.
Men and women wearing protective gears and face masks prepare to sanitize at the centre of La Paz, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in La Paz, Bolivia, April 2, 2020. REUTERS/Manuel Claure
Italy had the most deaths, more than 13,900, followed by Spain. The United States had the most confirmed cases of any country, more than 240,000, said researchers at the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Since the virus was first recorded in China late last year, the pandemic has spread around the world, prompting governments to close businesses, ground airlines and order hundreds of millions of people to stay at home to try to slow the contagion.
Johns Hopkins in Baltimore said more than 200,000 people had recovered from the disease, more than 75,000 of them in China.
Amid unprecedented government steps to prop up economies battered by the outbreak, U.S. weekly jobless claims jumped to a record 6.6 million, double the record from the previous week. That reinforced economists’ views that the longest employment boom in U.S. history probably ended in March, and that claims were expected to rise further.
Morgues and hospitals in New York City, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, bent under the str