US coronavirus death toll passes 100,000 mark
Infections surge in Brazil, South Korea reimposes distancing rules
The US coronavirus death toll passed 100,000 as the pandemic tightened its grip on South America, which is outpacing Europe and the US in daily infections.
Global cases have surged to nearly 5.7-million, with more than 354,000 deaths, and in a grim signal to other countries hoping to exit lockdown, South Korea reimposed social distancing rules after a spike in new cases.
Deaths in Brazil topped 25,000 on Wednesday, and its caseload is second only to the US, where authorities have moved to ease lockdowns and help the battered economy, despite experts recommending they remain on guard for a resurgence of the disease.
“Don’t start leapfrogging over the recommendations of some of the guidelines because that’s really tempting fate and asking for trouble,” Anthony Fauci, one of the top US health advisers, told CNN.
Nearly 1.7-million Americans are known to have been infected with the disease, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.
Lockdowns in some form will remain necessary until a vaccine or treatment is available, experts have warned, but many governments are under immense pressure to provide relief as businesses and citizens grow weary and resentful of mass confinement.
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s farright president and a Trump ally, has slammed stay-at-home orders and played down the threat of the virus, saying the economic fallout of lockdowns causes more damage than the disease itself.
But infections in Brazil have surged past 411,000, and similar bad news continues to emerge from other South American countries.
Peru logged a record 6,154 new cases in a 24-hour period, with its virus response co-ordinator Pilar Mazzetti warning that “difficult days, difficult weeks are coming”.
Worried relatives outside the Sabogal Hospital in the capital, Lima, were unable to enter to see loved ones suffering from Covid-19, with some begging the guards for information.
“I want to talk to a doctor and they don’t let me know,” Liset Villanueva, granddaughter of a coronavirus patient, said. “They don’t say anything, they don’t call, they don’t explain ... What is he suffering from?”
The 79 new cases in South Korea come as life appeared to be returning to normal after an extensive “trace, test and treat” programme.
Social distancing rules had
Don’t start leapfrogging over the ... guidelines because that’s really tempting fate
been relaxed earlier in May, but after the spike — centred on the densely-populated capital Seoul — authorities ordered some of them be reimposed, and for museums, parks and galleries to close again from Friday.
While scientists around the world are racing to develop a vaccine, parallel trials are under way to test treatments for Covid-19 symptoms.
France said on Wednesday it was banning the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment after the World Health Organisation suspended its testing over fears of dangerous side effects.
The drug has proved controversial and divisive, with some leaders and governments still backing it — including President Trump, who said he had taken a course as a preventive measure because he had “heard a lot of good stories” about it.
Health authorities in Brazil and Senegal, and India’s top biomedical research body have said they will continue to use it for Covid-19 patients, but the US Food and Drug Administration has warned of serious side effects and poisoning.
The urgency of the coronavirus crisis has prompted some doctors to prescribe the drug despite a lack of research to demonstrate its effectiveness against the new coronavirus.
As South America and parts of Africa and Asia scramble to deal with their worsening outbreaks, Europe has taken tentative steps to reopen economies and ease lockdowns as new infections slow.
As the continent — which has lost more than 175,000 people to Covid-19 — grappled with the human tragedy and economic destruction, the EU unveiled a €750bn (R14.385-trillion) recovery plan to get countries back on their feet.