Virus kills over 182,000 worldwide

ISLAMABAD: More than 2,621,436 infections have now been reported and at least 182,989 people have died of coronavirus worldwide, according to latest international media reports. Nearly two-thirds of those deaths have been in Europe, which has more than 111,093 fatalities. The United States has the most deaths of any country with 46,771.

Italy is the second hardest-hit country, with 25,085 dead. Spain follows with 21,717, then France with 21,340 and Britain with 18,100. Iran announced on Wednesday 94 new deaths from the novel coronavirus but said the cases of people infected in the country was on the way down.

Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the fatalities detected in the past 24 hours took Iran´s overall death toll to 5,391. The number of people infected with the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease rose by 1,194, bringing the total to 85,996.

"The gradual downward trend in cases of infections has been maintained," Jahanpour told a televised news conference. President Hassan Rouhani however called on people to remain vigilant.

Germany has green-lighted the launch of a clinical trial on human volunteers for a vaccine against COVID-19, the country´s regulatory body PEI says in a statement. The clinical trial will involve 200 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 55 years vaccinated with variants of the RNA vaccine, developed by German firm Biontech and US giant Pfizer.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Wednesday that COVID-19 will stalk the planet for a long time to come, warning that most countries were still in the early stages of tackling the pandemic.

WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said some countries that thought they had the new coronavirus under control were witnessing a resurgence in cases, while there were troubling upward trends in Africa and the Americas.

He also insisted that the UN health agency had declared a global emergency in good time on January 30 for countries to prepare and plan their response. The body has been heavily criticised by the United States for its handling of the pandemic but Tedros brushed off calls for him to resign.

"Most of the epidemics in western Europe appear to be stable or declining," Tedros told a virtual press conference in Geneva. Although numbers are low, we see worrying upward trends in Africa, Central and South America, and eastern Europe.

The Chinese government has provided emergency medical support to more than 150 countries and international organisations to help them brace COVID-19 and is actively facilitating the commercial procurement of various countries in China.

At the same time, many Chinese private institutions, enterprises and localities, including the Jack Ma Charity Foundation and Alibaba Charity Foundation, have also lend a helping hand to the outside world, Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson, Geng Shuang said during his regular briefing held.

He said since the outbreak of the new coronavirus epidemic, the international community has given China sincere help and strong support, which we have in mind. Meanwhile, the US state of Missouri has sued China´s leadership over the coronavirus crisis, prompting an angry rebuke from Beijing over the "absurd" claim.

Missouri is seeking damages over what it described as deliberate deception and insufficient action to stop the pandemic. New clusters of coronavirus infections in northeast China near the Russian border led officials to tighten restrictions on movement as they seek to prevent another outbreak.

China has largely curbed the spread of the deadly virus, but there are growing fears of a second wave of cases and Heilongjiang province has emerged as a new front in the battle.

The region has seen an influx of imported cases, mostly among Chinese citizens returning home, but domestic infections have also been mounting -- prompting the sacking or punishment of several officials.

In Japan, eight babies and toddlers at a Tokyo care centre tested positive for the coronavirus after a staff member contracted the disease, its operator said. Tokyo Saiseikai Central Hospital, which operates the facility, said the affected children had been hospitalised, while another 21 tested negative and were under observation.

The top Islamic authority in Indonesia´s conservative Aceh province says it will allow people to perform daily Ramadan mass prayers and prayers at night, in contravention of orders from the religious affairs ministry to curb such activities to fight the virus.