Europe toll tops 33,000 as UN warns of world’s worst crisis since WWII

MADRID/SRINAGAR: The coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 33,000 lives in Europe alone, a global tally showed Wednesday, in what the head of the United Nations has described as humanity´s worst crisis since World War II. The virus has extended to at least 206 countries and territories worldwide

Italy and Spain bore the brunt of the crisis, accounting for three in every four deaths on the continent, as the grim tally hit another milestone even though half of the planet´s population is already under some form of lockdown in a battle to halt contagion.

Spain reported a record 864 deaths in 24 hours, pushing the country´s number of fatalities past 9,000. The toll is only dwarfed by Italy´s, where the virus has killed nearly 12,500 people.

Since emerging in China in December, COVID-19 has spread across the globe, claiming over 46,400 lives with more than 4,000 new deaths and infecting more than 926,000 people across the world on Wednesday.

Meanwhile US President Donald Trump has warned America to brace for a “very, very painful two weeks” as the White House projected that the coronavirus pandemic could claim 100,000 to 240,000 lives, even if current social distancing guidelines are maintained.

Striking an unusually sombre tone at the start a marathon two-hour briefing, the US president defended his early handling of the crisis and displayed models that, he said, justified his decision to keep much of the economy shut down.

“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” Trump said at the White House. “We’re going to go through a very tough two weeks. This is going to be a very painful, very, very painful two weeks.”

In a scramble to halt the contagion, governments have shut schools, most shops, and ordered millions of people to work from home. Cancellations of key events on the global calendar have swept both the sports and cultural worlds, with the Edinburgh arts festival the latest to be scrapped.

For UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the extraordinary upheaval spurred by the virus presents a real danger to the relative peace the world has seen over the last few decades. The disease "represents a threat to everybody in the world and an economic impact that will bring a recession that probably has no parallel in the recent past," he said. "The combination of the two facts and the risk that it contributes to enhanced instability, enhanced unrest, and enhanced conflict are things that make us believe that this is the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War."

With most business activity grinding to a halt for an undetermined period of time, scenes of economic desperation and unrest were emerging across the globe.

In Italy, queues were lengthening at soup kitchens while some supermarkets were reportedly pillaged. Half a million more people now need help to afford meals, Italy´s biggest union for the agriculture sector Coldiretti said, adding to the 2.7 million already in need last year. "Usually we serve 152,525 people. But now we´ve 70,000 more requests," confirmed Roberto Tuorto, who runs a food aid association.

In Tunisia several hundred protested a week-old lockdown that has disproportionately hit the poor. "Never mind coronavirus, we´re going to die anyway! Let us work!" shouted one protester in the demonstration on the outskirts of the capital Tunis.

Africa´s biggest city Lagos was just into its second full day of lockdown on Wednesday -- but with some of the world´s biggest slums, home to millions who live hand-to-mouth, containment will be a challenge.

The economic cost of the crisis was still piling up as lockdowns remain at the forefront of official disease-stopping arsenals -- a strategy increasingly borne out by science. Researchers said China´s decision to shutter Wuhan, ground zero for the pandemic, may have prevented hundreds of thousands of new cases.

"Our analysis suggests that without the Wuhan travel ban and the national emergency response there would have been more than 700,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases outside of Wuhan" by mid February, said Oxford University´s Christopher Dye. At the same time, focus is now turning to how asymptomatic cases may be fuelling the spread.

China on Wednesday said it has more than 1,300 asymptomatic coronavirus cases, the first time it has released such data following public concern over people who have tested positive but are not showing symptoms.

Experts agree that asymptomatic patients are likely to be infectious, but it remains unknown how responsible they are for spreading the deadly virus.

Germany and France were also ramping up testing of the population to establish how many already have immunity.

For now, the focus of the health sector in the hardest hit countries remains the scramble for available facilities to treat patients. Emergency hospitals are popping up in event spaces while distressed medical staff makes grim decisions about how to distribute limited protective gear, beds and life-saving respirators.

Meanwhile, the heads of three global agencies warned Wednesday of a potential worldwide food shortage if authorities fail to manage the ongoing coronavirus crisis properly.Many governments around the world have put their populations on lockdown to slow the spread of the virus but that has resulted in severe slow-downs in international trade and food supply chains.

Meanwhile panic buying by people going into isolation has already demonstrated the fragility of supply chains as supermarket shelves emptied in many countries. "Uncertainty about food availability can spark a wave of export restrictions, creating a shortage on the global market," said the joint text signed by Qu Dongyu, head of the UN´s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Roberto Azevedo, director of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Meanwhile, an 11-year-old girl has become Indonesia´s youngest person to die after contracting the coronavirus, officials said Wednesday, as the country´s death toll from COVID-19 nearly tripled from a week ago.

The girl, who was also suffering from dengue fever, was admitted to hospital on Madura Island off the coast of Java on March 19. She had a fever and breathing difficulties, and died the following day. Tests only confirmed this week that the girl also had COVID-19. "Her immune system was quite poor," said Joni Wahyuhadi, an official at East Java´s virus task force. "She was battling two illnesses at once so that´s why her condition worsened."

Indonesia said Wednesday its death toll from COVID-19 had reached 157 -- including 11 frontline doctors -- compared with 58 a week ago.

The coronavirus pandemic will plunge 8.3 million people in the Arab region into poverty, the United Nation´s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia said on Wednesday. ESCWA also warned that two million people could become undernourished as a result. "With today´s estimates, a total of 101.4 million people in the region would be classified as poor, and 52 million as undernourished," the UN agency said.

Women and young adults working in the informal sector and who have no access to social welfare are among the most vulnerable, said ESCWA executive secretary Rola Dashti. "Arab Governments must ensure a swift emergency response to protect their people from falling into poverty and food insecurity owing to the impact of COVID-19," Dashti added.

Meanwhile Britain reported 563 daily coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, the first time the national toll has exceeded 500, bringing the total fatalities to 2,352, according to official figures. "As of 5pm (1600 GMT) on 31 March, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 2,352 have sadly died," the health ministry said on its official Twitter page.