(Reuters) – The United States could become the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization said, as the U.S. negotiators reached an agreement on a $2-trillion aid package and India announced a nationwide lockdown in the world’s second-most populous country.
A worker in protective suit knocks a door to deliver the meal at a hotel being used as a centralised observation and quarantine place for people arriving from overseas, to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Beijing, China March 24, 2020. China Daily via REUTERS
DEATHS, INFECTIONS
Nearly 421,000 people have been infected across the world and more than 18,800 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.
EUROPE
Fatalities in Italy surged on Tuesday, dashing hopes the epidemic was easing after more encouraging numbers in the previous two days.
France’s death toll is much higher than the official tally, which only accounts for those dying in hospitals and does not include those dying at home or in retirement homes, the head of the hospitals federation said.
More than 170,000 people signed up to help Britain’s National Health Service, and the parliament is set to suspend sitting for at least four weeks.
Nurses and doctors demanded action after Spain reported its sharpest daily increase in new cases on Tuesday and said about 14% of the nearly 40,000 infections were among health workers.
Russia’s total number of cases reached 658 on Wednesday with a record daily rise, a day after Moscow’s mayor warned the outbreak in the capital was much wo