World struggling under COVID-19 invasion: 1.43 million infected, 82,000 dead

Havana, April 8 (RHC)-- The number of coronavirus cases around the world has now reached 1,430,141 -- and 82,119 people have lost their lives due to complications caused by the viral infection, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.   Some 301,130 people have also recovered and been discharged from hospitals.

Here is the latest information from countries plagued by the virus in Europe:

Italy, the country with the highest death toll in the world, reported 604 fatalities and 3,039 new infections on Tuesday.  It was a lower daily toll than the 636 seen the day before, official said.  The total death toll in the country rose to 17,127, and the number of confirmed cases reached 135,586.

The number of daily deaths from the new coronavirus in Spain on Tuesday rose for the first time in five days.  Some 743 patients died of complications caused by the virus, compared with 637 in the previous 24 hours.  The county has so far had 141,942 confirmed cases and 14,045 deaths.

In a daily update, France said on Tuesday that its overall death toll had passed 10,000, while the country has not yet reached the peak of the epidemic.  Health official reported 607 more deaths in hospitals and 820 in nursing and care homes across the country on Tuesday.  The deaths may have occurred over several days but are being added to the overall toll now, official said.  France now has a total of 10,328 deaths and 110,272 positive cases.

Britain announced a new record of 854 people had died from the outbreak over the previous 24 hours.  New studies show Britain will likely become the hardest-hit nation in Europe by the outbreak.  This comes as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a second night in intensive care from COVID complications.

Meanwhile, the head of the European Union (EU)’s top science organization has resigned, saying he is “extremely disappointed by the European response to COVID-19,” the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

Mauro Ferrari, who had only become president of the European Research Council (ERC) at the start of this year, said that he had “lost faith in the system itself.”  “I have seen enough of both the governance of science, and the political operations at the European Union,” he wrote in a statement to the Times.

The EU has already been criticized for not acting forcefully enough to set up a coordinated response to the health crisis.  Italy in particular has censured the body for not assisting it properly.