Close to one billion people worldwide were confined to their homes on Saturday as the global coronavirus death toll shot past 11,000 and US states rolled out lockdown measures already imposed across swathes of Europe.
The pandemic has completely upended lives across the planet,restricting movement, shutting schools and forcing millions to work from home.
While President Donald Trump insisted the United States was”winning” the war against the virus, individual states dramaticallyramped up restrictions, with New York and Illinois joining California inordering residents to stay home.
The virus death toll surged past 11,000 worldwide, with4,000 alone in worst-hit Italy where the daily number of fatalities has shot uprelentlessly over the past week.
An estimated 900 million people are now confined to theirhomes in 35 countries around the world — including 600 million hemmed in byobligatory government lockdown orders — according to an AFP tally.
While the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditionsare the hardest hit by the virus, the World Health Organization warned thatyoung people were also vulnerable.
“Today I have a message for young people: you are notinvincible. This virus could put you in hospital for weeks — or even killyou,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“Even if you don’t get sick, the choices you make aboutwhere you go could be the difference between life and death for someoneelse.” China on Saturday reported no new local infections for a thirdstraight day, and the WHO said the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where thevirus emerged late last year, offered a glimmer of “hope for the rest ofthe world”.
But there are growing concerns of a new wave of”imported” infections in the region, with Hong Kong reporting 48suspected cases on Friday — its biggest daily jump since the crisis began.Many of them have a recent history of travel to or from Europe.
Italy reported its worst single day death toll Friday,adding another 627 fatalities and taking its reported total to 4,032 despiteefforts to stem the spread.
The nation of 60 million now accounts for 36 percent of theworld’s coronavirus deaths and its death rate of 8.6 percent among confirmedinfections is significantly higher than in most other countries.
France, Italy, Spain and other European countries haveordered people to stay at home, threatening fines in some cases, while Bavariabecame the first region in Germany to order a lockdown.
Britain, falling in line with its EU neighbours, alsoannounced tougher restrictions, telling pubs, restaurants and theatres to closeand promising to help cover the wages of affected workers.
Australia’s famed Bondi beach was also ordered shut aftersunbathers crowded the hotspot in defiance of government orders to avoidnon-essential outdoor gatherings.
“This is not something we are doing because we are the’fun police’… This is about saving lives,” New South Wales state PoliceMinister David Elliott told reporters.
With virus fears gripping the United States, its largeststate California — with over 1,000 cases and 19 deaths — told its 40 millionresidents to stay at home.
New York state, which has reported over 7,000 cases and 39deaths, followed suit on Friday, ordering its nearly 20 million residents to dothe same from Sunday evening.
Trump applauded the New York and California decisions, butsaid he did not think a nationwide lockdown was needed.
“Those are really two hotbeds,” he said. “Idon’t think we’ll ever find (a US-wide lockdown) necessary.” Shortly afterthe president spoke, the governor of Illinois ordered residents of themidwestern state to stay at home and the Connecticut governor did the same.
The restrictions so far imposed in seven states cover around100 million people, with the country’s three most populous cities — New York,Los Angeles and Chicago — under lockdown.
Trump also announced Friday that the US and Mexico haveagreed to restrict non-essential travel across their border.
And US lawmakers on Friday evening missed a deadline toreach an agreement on a $1 trillion emergency package, amid fears of widespreadeconomic fallout because of the pandemic.
Strict confinement measures across Europe follow thetemplate set by China, as a lockdown imposed in Hubei province, of which Wuhanis the capital, appeared to have paid off.
Europe now accounts for more than half of the world’sfatalities linked to COVID-19.
Accurate figures are difficult to come by, however, as manyof those who die suffer from other illnesses and infection rates are uncertainbecause of a lack of testing in many countries.
In a sign of the shifting centre of the crisis, China hassent medical supplies to European nations struggling to cope with the pandemic,including Greece which received 500,000 medical masks from Beijing Saturday.
The shadow of the virus is lengthening across Africa and theMiddle East too.
The Democratic Republic of Congo reported its first deathSaturday, while Burkina Faso reported two new deaths, bringing the total numberof fatalities in sub-Saharan Africa to five.
Cases stand at over 1,000 across Africa, where health caresystems are fragile and social distancing is not possible in many crowdedcities.
In Iran, which reported 123 new deaths Saturday, bothsupreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani promised thecountry would overcome the outbreak — but still refused to join the rest ofthe world in imposing heavy restrictions.
The country has more than 1,500 deaths and some 20,000infections.
In Latin America, Cuba and Bolivia both announced they wereclosing their borders, and Colombia said it would begin mandatory isolationfrom Tuesday.Rio de Janeiro’s beaches will be off-limits tosunseekers from Saturday, leaving street vendors worried how they will survivewith limited government support.