4,982 more global deaths due to COVID-19, says WHO
Nearly 5,000 deaths have been reported globally in the past 24 hours, taking the global death toll due to coronavirus to 2,11,606 as on 8:15 am on Tuesday. According to the latest WHO data, 85,530 new cases of infection have been registered globally over the past day, with 4,982 deaths. The overall number of COVID-19 cases worldwide increased to 2,878,196 and the death count had reached 198,668 on Monday. There are 1,359,380 confirmed cases and 124,525 deaths in Europe. The number of cases in the Americas total 1,140,520, with 58,492 deaths.
Meanwhile, South Africa reported 247 new COVID-19 cases and three more deaths in the past 24 hours, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said. With the newly-added cases and deaths, the country now has a total of 4,793 cases and 90 deaths, Mkhize said.
The number of COVID-19 cases has kept growing in the Middle East, as the confirmed cases in Turkey and Iran exceeded 112,000 and 91,000 respectively on Monday. Some countries in the region are gradually relaxing their restrictive measures with caution.
Turkish health ministry on Monday recorded 2,131 more confirmed cases and 95 more deaths, taking the total number of infections to 112,261 and the death toll to 2,900 in the country.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared three days of lockdown in 31 provinces starting from May 1 to curb the spread of COVID19.
After attending a video cabinet meeting from Istanbul on Monday, Erdogan said weekend curfews would continue until the end of Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim feast marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in late May.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, while addressing a news conference on coronavirus pandemic said his administration has launched "very serious investigations" into China's response to the novel coronavirus.
"And we are not happy with China, we are not happy with that whole situation, because we believe it could have been stopped at the source," he said. "It could have been stopped quickly and it wouldn't have spread all over the world," the BBC reported.
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