ANKARA, TURKEY The number of people worldwide who have recovered from the novel coronavirus crossed 300,000 early Wednesday, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University. Since emerging in Wuhan, China last December, the coronavirus has spread to at least 184 countries and regions around the globe, with the number of confirmed cases now exceeding 1.42 million. Italy, Spain, France and the UK continue to be the hardest-hit countries in terms of fatalities. Italy has reported the highest number of deaths from the virus with 17,127, followed by Spain with 14,045 and France with 10,343. The U.K. has reported 6,171 deaths, while Iran has reported 3,872. As of Tuesday evening, the death toll in the US had surpassed 12,700. Deaths usually lag behind case numbers by several weeks, according to epidemiologists. Coronavirus intensive care — what is involved? Turkey confirmed Tuesday that 76 more people in the country had died from the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 725, while its total number of confirmed cases surged to 34,109 as 3,892 more people tested positive, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told reporters. Many countries have restricted travel from the most-affected areas and implemented lockdowns. The World Health Organiza tion declared the outbreak a pandemic last month and Europe its new epicentre. London, April 8 (AFP/APP):British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was spending a second night in intensive care battling the coronavirus which has infected more than 55,000 across the country and killed nearly 6,200. “He stayed at work for you… now pray at home for him,” The Sun tabloid splashed across its front page Wednesday while the Daily Express said: “Boris ‘will pull through’.” Deputising for Johnson, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he was “confident he’ll pull through, because if there’s one thing I know about this prime minister, he’s a fighter and he’ll be back, leading us through this crisis in short order”. In an update Tuesday evening, the prime minister’s spokesman said his “condition is stable and he remains in intensive care for close monitoring.” He earlier said the 55- year-old Conservative leader was receiving “standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance” and had not required a ventilator. Johnson is the most high-profile government leader to become infected with COVID-19 and messages of support flooded in from across Britain and the world. He was admitted to intensive care on Monday evening after spending Sunday night in hospital following concerns he still had a cough and high temperature 10 days after being diagnosed with COVID-19. His transfer to intensive care is unprecedented for a prime minister during a national emergency. For many people, it brought home the seriousness of the disease that has so far seen 6,159 deaths in Britain, with a record 786 more reported in a daily update on Tuesday. Spain recorded Wednesday a second successive daily rise in coronavirus-related deaths with 757 fatalities, lifting the total toll in Europe’s second-hardest-hit country after Italy by 5.5 percent to 14,555. The number of new infections rose by 4.4 percent to 146,690, the health ministry said, as Spain has ramped up its testing for the disease. The number of daily deaths, which peaked on Thursday at 950, rose for the first time on Tuesday after falling for four straight days. But the rate of increase in both deaths and new infections on Wednesday was largely in line with that recorded the previous day, and half of what was recorded just a week ago. “We have consolidated the slowdown in the spread of the virus,” Health Minister Salvador Illa tweeted after the latest figures were published. The Spanish government on March 14 imposed one of the toughest lockdowns in Europe to curb the spread of the virus, with people allowed out of their homes only to work, buy food and seek medical care.—APP
