Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
The number of COVID-19 cases in India rose to 13,387 on Friday as the government began ramping up testing after receiving 6.5 lakh kits from China. At least 437 people have died, while 1,748 have been treated and discharged. Maharashtra continues to remains the worst affected state, with a total of 3,205 cases and 194 deaths, followed by New Delhi with 1,640 infections and 38 fatalities.
Global coronavirus cases passed 2.1 million on Friday as the total number of cases across the world reached at least 2,158,250 and deaths at 144,000 according to Johns Hopkins University.
China’s Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, revised its death toll up 50%. Wuhan’s prevention and control taskforce have revised the death toll in Wuhan upwards by 50%, from 2,579 to 3,869. The updated figure comes after weeks of scepticism about the reported death toll, as other countries have seen fatalities reach more than 10,000, reports The Guardian.
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Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro fired his health minister following a disagreement over the country’s coronavirus strategy. “I just heard from the President Jair Bolsonaro the news of my dismissal from the health ministry,” Luiz Henrique Mandetta tweeted, adding that he wished success to his replacement, who is yet to be named officially. Mandetta had been praised for his response to the pandemic.
Meanwhile the pandemic continues to hit the job market as 5 million more Americans sign on as unemployed. The US labour department announced that another 5.24 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week, making a total of 22.2 million since 14 March. The US has reported over 667,000 cases of the coronavirus and 32,868 deaths. New York, the epicentre of the outbreak in the US, has extended its lockdown till May 15.
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