Over 9L cases, 45k deaths: There's no stopping this virus

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Washington, April 1 (IANS) The COVID-19 death toll on Wednesday passed 45,000 worldwide, with infected cases crossing the 9 lakh mark with the US on the top of the tally with nearly 2 lakh cases.

More than 175,000 people have recovered from the disease, according to the tally from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE).

The US, which has seen over 4,000 deaths, was followed by Italy and Spain, respectively, both with over 1 lakh cases each.

Nearly 12,500 people have died of the coronavirus in Italy so far. In Spain, the virus has claimed 9,053 lives.

In the US, New York, the epicentre of the nation's outbreak, has reported both the most cases and the most deaths, which have respectively topped 75,000 and 1,550.

President Donald Trump has warned of "hard days that lie ahead", saying the US death toll could mount to between 100,000 and 2,40,000.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a press conference that the state will hit the peak of its COVID-19 spread in seven to 21 days.

"This does me no good," Cuomo said. "The range is too broad."

In addition, the Governor said that states are bidding against each other to obtain ventilators and devices that can deliver breaths of oxygenated air to patients who are unable to breathe sufficiently on their own, saying that "it's like being on Ebay."

Anthony Fauci, a key member the White House's COVID-19 task force, said on Tuesday that they are examining whether to recommend more widespread usage of face masks to mitigate the spread of the virus, Xinhua reported.

"You don't want to take masks away from the healthcare providers who are in a real and present danger of getting infected," Fauci told CNN's Jim Sciutto on "Newsroom."

--IANS

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