Global Covid-19 death toll tops 70,000 as ACTIVE infections approach 1 MILLION

The worldwide coronavirus pandemic has killed over 70,000 people to date, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. With some 270,000 recovered cases globally, the number of active infections now stands at almost one million.

It took the virus just two days to pass yet another grim milestone, claiming another 10,000 lives globally since Saturday, and infecting some 150,000 more people, the JHU data shows.

In a glimmer of hope, Italy reported its first drop in severe cases brought to intensive care, as well as a further decline in daily casualties over the weekend. However, it remains the worst-affected country in Europe with nearly 16,000 deaths so far.

Rome is cautiously preparing to invoke “phase two” of the emergency, once it is confirmed that the country is past the peak of the outbreak, easing lockdown restrictions but only to an extent.

Europe's second deadliest hotspot (and first in terms of infections), Spain, has lost over 12,600 people to date. As the daily casualty rate showed the first signs of slowing down, the Spanish leadership sought solidarity within the EU and warned that the union will fail if it gets its handling of the Covid-19 crisis wrong.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the United States, which leads the world with more than 330,000 cases, is growing steadily and stands at nearly 10,000 as the country braces for the “hardest” and “deadliest” week, according to officials’ warnings.

After New York, the hardest-hit coronavirus epicenter in America, reported a slight drop in new cases for the first time in over a week, President Donald Trump expressed hope that deaths could finally be “leveling off.” His advisers on the coronavirus task force, however, warned against too much optimism just yet, as according to Dr Anthony Fauci the coming days are “going to look really bad.”