Spain, Italy, France, Germany, United Kingdom … Two thirds of the deaths in the world linked to the coronavirus come from Europe, where the situation is dramatic.
The health situation remains dramatic in Europe, where the 4,000 death mark was crossed on Thursday in Spain and where London hospitals are facing a “tsunami” of patients, but the WHO still sees “encouraging signs” of slow down the spread of the new coronavirus on the continent.
Faced with the global crisis, a summit by videoconference, Thursday, March 26, 2020, of the leaders of the 20 most industrialized countries on the planet will try to bring a coordinated response to the pandemic which, according to the UN, “threatens all of humanity Despite unprecedented containment measures affecting more than three billion people.
The European Parliament is also devoting a special session to emergency measures against the coronavirus.
Read also: Coronavirus: 25,233 cases, 1,331 deaths… Update on the situation in France on Wednesday
Europe very affected
In London, public hospitals are facing a “continuous tsunami” of seriously ill people accompanied by an “unprecedented” proportion of suffering staff, an official in the British public health system announced on Thursday.
The Covid-19, which appeared in China in December and which killed around 20,600 people, “threatens all of humanity,” warned the UN chief.
With two-thirds of deaths, Europe is paying the highest price at this stage. More than 250,000 cases of new coronavirus have been officially diagnosed there, more than half of them in Italy (74,386) and Spain (56,188), according to a count made by AFP on Thursday at 12 noon.
“Although the situation remains very worrying, we are starting to see encouraging signs,” nevertheless said Thursday the head of the European branch of the World Health Organization (WHO), Hans Kluge.
The increase in the number of cases in Italy, the hardest-hit country in the world with more than 7,500 deaths, seems to be slowing down “but it is still too early to say that the pandemic has reached its peak in this country”, he said. -he adds.
Spain, which had become the 2nd most affected country in the world the day before in front of China in number of deaths, crossed the threshold of 4,000 deaths on Thursday.
“Worse than a war”
In Vertova, a small village in northern Italy, the virus has killed more people than the Second World War. “It is absurd to see that in 2020 there could be a pandemic of this kind, worse than a war,” laments the mayor, Orlando Gualdi.
“Unfortunately, there are no masks or disinfectants in the village,” says Augusta Magni, a 63-year-old resident.
The consequence of unprecedented containment measures now affecting more than a third of humanity: the world is at a standstill and the economy is sinking.
Experts expect an explosion in unemployment benefit claims in the United States, whose weekly figures are expected at 12:30 p.m. GMT.
In France, the national statistics institute estimates the loss of economic activity due to containment measures at 35% . The country, which counts more than 1300 dead, is preparing for a “long effort”. France has withdrawn its troops from Iraq and put its soldiers on the war foot to respond to this health emergency.
To imagine the parade, the G20, which represents nearly two-thirds of the world population and three-quarters of the global GDP, will prepare “global and coordinated response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its human and economic implications”, promised Saudi Arabia, who holds the rotating presidency of the institution.
The United States, the new epicentre of the pandemic?
This emergency meeting comes the day after the adoption by the American Senate of a plan to support the American economy of 2000 billion dollars in the United States, and the adoption in Germany of an arsenal of measures of 1100 billion euros.
After two sessions of gains, the Tokyo Stock Exchange relapsed heavily Thursday, against a background of fear of an outbreak of the epidemic in the Japanese capital, whose residents are invited to avoid travel this weekend, but not confined.
London, Frankfurt and Paris, which had recovered hopes in the past two days, also opened lower, frightened by the spread of the epidemic, especially in the United States, the world’s largest economy.
It is where it progresses most rapidly, with nearly 68,572 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and more than 1,000 deaths , according to a count from Johns Hopkins University.
Une morgue temporaire est en cours d’installation à l’extérieur du Bellevue Hospital de New York, en prévision d’une augmentation du nombre de victimes du #covid_19 #AFP pic.twitter.com/ah6BqBkmdc
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) March 26, 2020
Containment in India and Russia
The second most populous country in the world, India (officially 519 cases, including 10 fatal) confined, in turn, Wednesday its 1.3 billion inhabitants.
In Russia, all international flights will be suspended from Friday and next week will be idle, President Vladimir Putin has called on his fellow citizens to “stay at home”, without however ordering it.
However, the Moscow city hall announced the closure on Saturday of all non-essential businesses.
La Russie va suspendre tous ses vols internationaux à partir de vendredi minuit (jeudi 21H00 GMT), selon un décret du gouvernement établissant de nouvelles mesures contre le #COVID19 #AFP pic.twitter.com/9yk0hiKVds
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) March 26, 2020
