On Wednesday evening, the Johns Hopkins tally showed 100,047 U.S. coronavirus deaths. The United States has seen more coronavirus deaths than any other country, according to the data — although analysts and critics frequently have questioned the numbers of cases and deaths reported in other countries.
As virus-related deaths continue to rise, the U.S. saw just 500 new deaths Monday, its lowest daily total since March 28, and 693 more on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed infections has reached over 1.66 million.
New York, the hardest-hit state, has seen more than 363,000 coronavirus cases and over 23,000 deaths, according to recent estimates, followed by New Jersey, with reports of over 155,000 cases and over 11,100 deaths.
The news comes as the majority of states begin reopening their economies to a number of businesses.
Countries in Europe and Asia have also begun lifting restrictions that brought daily life to an effective halt for almost two months in some parts as a critical tradeoff to protect citizens. More than 2.3 million have recovered from the virus.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday warned that the world is still in the midst of a “first wave” of the pandemic.
“Right now, we’re not in the second wave. We’re right in the middle of the first wave globally,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO.
“We’re still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up,” Ryan told reporters, pointing to South America, South Asia, and other areas where infections are still on the rise.
India saw a record single-day jump in new cases for the eighth straight day. It reported 6,387 new infections Wednesday, raising its total to 151,876, including 4,346 deaths.
Brazil has 375,000 coronavirus infections — second only to the 1.6 million cases in the U.S. — and has counted over 23,000 deaths. Many fear Brazil’s true toll is much higher.
Worldwide, the virus has infected over 5.6 million people, killing over 350,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. Europe has had about 170,000 deaths.
Dr. Ryan said that while cases are declining in many countries, they are still increasing in Central and South America, South Asia among others.
He remarked that epidemics often come in waves, which means that outbreaks could come back later this year in places where the first wave has subsided. Dr. Ryan said that there is also a chance that infection rates could rise again more quickly if measures to halt the first wave were lifted too soon.
“When we speak about a second wave, classically what we often mean is there will be a first wave of the disease by itself, and then it recurs months later. And that may be a reality for many countries in a few months’ time,” Ryan said.
“But we need also to be cognizant of the fact that the disease can jump up at any time. We cannot make assumptions that just because the disease is on the way down now it is going to keep going down. We may get a second peak.”
Alternatively, countries should continue to put in place the public health and social measures, the surveillance measures, the testing measures and a comprehensive strategy to ensure that we continue on a downwards trajectory and we don’t have an immediate second peak,” he said.
New results from a clinical trial conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases establish the drug as the standard of care for Covid-19, which has killed 50,000 people in the U.S. so far, said agency Director Anthony Fauci. He likened the good news about remdesivir to the discovery of the first medication found to help treat HIV more than three decades ago.
“The data shows that Remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said at the White House during a meeting with President Donald Trump.
Results from the preliminary trial show Remdesivir improved recovery time for coronavirus patients from 15 to 11 days. That’s similar to the effect that the influenza drug Tamiflu has on flu. Tamiflu also doesn’t cure patients quickly, but can reduce how long they are sick.
“Although a 31% improvement doesn’t seem like a knockout 100%, it is very important proof of concept,” Fauci said of Remdesivir. “What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus.”
Remdesivir also may reduce the likelihood that patients will die.
“Results also suggested a survival benefit, with a mortality rate of 8.0% for the group receiving Remdesivir versus 11.6% for the placebo group,”
Remdesivir is among several drugs being tested against Covid-19, but the NIAID trial is the first conducted according to rules aimed at gaining FDA approval.
About 1,090 people participated in the trial internationally, but the World Health Organization said it’s too early to comment on the remdesivir trial results released.
“Typically, you don’t have one study that will come out that will be a game changer,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for the coronavirus response.
She said the agency generally pulls together evidence from several studies before reviewing and critiquing the evidence.
“It can sometimes take a number of publications to determine (what) the ultimate impact of a drug is,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program.
Sharp downward revisions to economic growth forecasts in the wake of the pandemic point towards sickening levels of unemployment, but Modi urged Indians to maintain the discipline shown in the first three weeks of the lockdown.
“That means until May 3, each and every one of us will have to remain in the lockdown,” Modi said in a televised address to the nation.
“From an economic only point of view, it undoubtedly looks costly right now; but measured against the lives of Indian citizens, there is no comparison itself.”
India’s neighbour, Pakistan, with a population of 205 million, extended its lockdown, due to end on Wednesday, by two weeks. Nepal extended the lockdown of its 30 million people until April 27. Nepal has 16 cases of the virus and no deaths but worries about a spillover from India.
Modi spoke as the latest government data showed the number of people infected with coronavirus in India had reached 10,363, with 339 deaths.
Although the numbers are small compared with hard-hit Western nations, health experts fear that is because of India’s low levels of testing and that actual infection levels could be far higher.
Lacking testing kits and protective gear for medical workers, India has only tested 137 per million of its population, compared with 15,935 per million in Italy, and 8,138 in the United States.
Main support of Algeria in the Security Council, South Africa has repeated before the UN executive body an odd set of tropes mixing bad faith with the ideological dogmatism of another time, before a UN body firmly attached to the path of reaching a political, realistic, pragmatic and lasting solution based on compromise regarding the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.
The South African delegation deplored a so-called deadlock in the political process, where the other members of the Security Council welcomed the new impetus brought by the holding of two Round Tables in December 2018 and in March 2019 in Geneva bringing together Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and the “polisario”, and the will of the participants to meet again in the same format.
In doing so, South Africa has not only placed itself at odds with the fourteen other members of the Security Council, but also contradicted its own positions. As a member of the Security Council for the period of 2007-2008, South Africa had voted in favor of resolutions 1754, 1783, and 1813, which call on the parties to engage in the political process to reach a political solution, while stipulating the pre-eminence of the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative, which they describe as “serious” and “credible”.
Where the Security Council clearly circumscribes in its resolutions the mandate of MINURSO to observing compliance with the Military Agreements, South Africa continued its logorrhea by alleging that the mandate of MINURSO is to organize a referendum, an option that the Security Council has definitively rejected since 2001.
Short of ideas, South Africa tried to instrumentalize the COVID-19 pandemic in its tirade against Morocco, alleging “responsibilities” arising from a Kingdom’s status in relation to the Moroccan Sahara that belongs only to the imaginary of South African diplomacy. Likewise, South Africa called for extending the Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire to the Moroccan Sahara, a region where no shots have been fired since 1991.
The attempt to instrumentalize the human drama that COVID-19 inflicts on the whole world is all the more surprising given that South Africa is the most affected country in the continent by the disease, which requires states to focus their attention on domestic response efforts, while showing solidarity and compassion.
South Africa’s sad spectacle ended with a proposal for the press compiling its worn-out tropes, a proposal that the Security Council rejected, dealing the South African delegation an unprecedented blow, according to the same diplomatic sources.
Over the past years, Canada has gained notoriety for sheltering genocide deniers led by Judi Rever who published several books and articles advancing the double genocide theory. She has published books perpetrating denialism and history revisionism such as ‘In Praise of Blood” and “The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front.”
In the latter, she explains that with over 20 years worth of investigation, she found out that the RPF perpetrated the genocide against Tutsi and a second genocide against Hutu. She uses testimonies from former military officers who fled the country after the genocide.
As Rwanda began the 26th commemoration of the genocide against Tutsi, Gen Dallaire said that in Canada, his country of origin, denialism should be a crime punishable by law. “the Canadian government should reaffirm its stance against genocide and make denialism a crime punishable by law. Politicians, journalists, writers and other individuals who perpetrate denialism should not be tolerated.”
Gen Dallaire restated the fact that during the genocide Tutsi were left to fend for themselves as the international community overlooked gruesome massacres. “We have failed Tutsi families during the genocide and for the rest of our lives, we will have flashbacks on the indifference we showed while more than a million Tutsi were being killed.”
Gen Dallaire said that the 1994 genocide against Tutsi is the most ruthless and brutal mass killing he ever witnessed. He called upon the international community to prevent genocide by first prosecuting deniers and perpetrators.
In 2007, Dallaire founded the Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, a program with the aim of rescuing and rehabilitating child soldiers.
The record-breaking figure of 1,973 deaths (slightly higher than the previous day’s toll of 1,939) brings the total number of US fatalities to 14,695.
The US death toll now exceeds that of Spain, which has suffered 14,555 deaths, but has not surpassed Italy, whose toll stands at 17,669.
In New York, the epicentre of the US outbreak, the state’s governor noted the new single-day high for virus deaths at 779, but offered an optimistic view for the weeks to come.
“We are flattening the curve,” Andrew Cuomo told reporters, as he cited a decreasing hospitalization rate due to stay-at-home orders.
That optimism was shared by US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who both said the data seemed to indicate a turn for the better.
“We are hopefully heading towards a final stretch, the light at the end of the tunnel,” Trump told reporters.
Pence chimed in: “We’re beginning to see glimmers of hope.”
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Governments are grappling with how to balance public safety against the devastating economic impact of stay-at-home orders that have erased millions of jobs in a matter of weeks.
More than 86,000 people worldwide have died in the virus crisis, which has sent the global economy spiralling and forced billions of people to remain at home as much as possible.
As the economic downturn starts to bite, health experts stressed that any premature loosening of restrictions could accelerate the spread of a contagion that has already infiltrated nearly every country.
The previous record for most new US COVID-19 deaths in a single day was on April 4 with a spike of 1,344 cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Across the country, there are 402,383 cases of the virus reported as of Tuesday evening.
In the US there’s a reported fatality rate of 3.2 percent from the virus. More than 22,000 people have recovered from respiratory illness.
Figures show the number of fatalities has increased drastically by more than 8,000 in the first week of April compared to the entire month of March when 4,000 deaths were recorded.
The harrowing figures come as health officials warned this week would be one of the hardest for Americans given the death toll is expected to continue to rise in stark numbers.
Data has predicted the peak of the pandemic is still set to hit on April 16 when 3,000 deaths are expected to occur in 24 hours, according to forecasters at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine.
Health officials have warned that the death toll from coronavirus is likely much higher than is being reported because there is no national, streamlined way of reporting fatalities amid the pandemic.
The epicenter of the outbreak in the US lies in New York , where 731 new fatalities were reported Tuesday – its biggest one-day jump yet – bringing the total number of deaths in the state to 5,489 deaths.
There are now 139,876 confirmed infections across the state following an increase of 8,046 cases in 24 hours.
The event consisting of a peace walk and peace song contest was held at the Islamic College Thailand in Bangkok on July 15th in attendance with students, faculties, and journalists. To spread a culture of peace, the peace walk took place from the Thonburi Youth Center to the Islamic College Thailand and the speeches calling for a sustainable peace secured in legal framework continued.
The participants also joined the “Peace Letter Campaign” that collects the voice of citizens of each country to establish international law for peace based on the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War(DPCW). According to the official of the host, the letters will be delivered to the leaders of Thailand.
The DPCW of 10 articles and 38 clauses addresses the principles of conflict resolution and international cooperation for peacebuilding such as respect on the international law, peaceful dispute settlement, and spreading a culture of peace. Currently, the letters supporting the DPCW written by approximately 1.3 million citizens in 193 countries have sent to their president or prime minister with expectations for responses from heads of each state.
Ms. Chollada Suawong, a coordinator of this event, said: “I am happy to cooperate in organizing this event participated with people from various religious backgrounds that can help to transform the differences into harmony.”
Mr. Supalak Ganjanakhundee, a former chief editor of The Nation, said in his speech “Thai people should learn how to make peaceful resolutions such as peace talks. To do that, Thai people should have faith in peace and should reject any form of violence. Thailand needs to establish a credible rule of law. It can also be supporting the DPCW that means ruling by just and legitimated laws.”
The event was hosted by an international peace NGO called Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light(HWPL) and its affiliated youth organization, International Peace Youth Group. This event also marked the 6th Annual Commemoration of the Declaration of World Peace and the Peace Walk that has been held at about 126 places in 77 countries including Myanmar, Australia, China, Germany, India, South Africa, the Philippines, and the United States of America.
To realize the world of no war and sustainable peace, HWPL has been carrying out its peace initiatives such as international law for peace, interfaith dialogue meetings, and peace education in cooperation with various sectors of global society from citizens to heads of states with the slogan of “Everyone should become messengers of peace”.
With the title of ‘The role of teachers for peace education’, 2019 Peace Education Conference was an event that presented the progress of the peace curriculum customized for European background and the direction of developing a culture of peace backed by international law for peace.
{{Planting the value of peace to the students, Peace Education
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“This is a very complex subject. But just like all journey starts with a first step, raising the awareness of peace should be done for the most basic level. Through this education, children understood that they have the power to do good acts on their level. They can actually change their lives and the lives of their family in the future. I try to make them see the importance of the value of respect, helping others, and tolerance that create better students as righteous adults,” said Mr. Dumitru Marius-Gabriel, a teacher of 1 Mai Technical High-school of Ploiesti, who has operated the peace education.
“Working with HWPL for this project brought me much joy and fulfillment because I could blend my normal lessons with the message of peace. I realized how important it is for us, teachers, to become a role model of our students. I’d like to add this peace education exists to create a peaceful world for future generation to cease all wars. Furthermore, this education should spread not only to our students but to all the students everywhere. They are the future of our peace,” he added.
One of the distinguishing aspects of this education was the collaboration between a local organization and an international NGO to proceed with the curriculum. The teachers belong to Master Peace, a local Romanian youth group, have carried out peace education. And the curriculum and materials for peace education were provided by an international peace NGO called HWPL.
According to the official of HWPL, the peace education is designed with the aim of to leave peace as a legacy to the future generations by raising the awareness of the importance of realizing peace and fostering a culture of peace. It recently provides the books, which contains the worldwide peace activities and peace agreements that HWPL has carried out, to the schools and libraries to encourage every citizen to participate in peace work.
As a part of peace initiatives, more than 200 educational institutions in 21 countries including Romania, Republic of South Africa, India, Israel, Kosovo, the Philippines are designated as HWPL Peace Academies to train the educators and students with the value of peace beyond boundaries, races, and religions.
Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL said: “As you can see the name of our organization, “Heavenly Culture” refers to the highest culture from heaven above worldly cultures that can realize peace by harmonizing all the people in the world. Even if you are born in a family or in a country with great wealth, you may feel infernal when there’s no peace in your family or your country. The first start is important, so peace education should start with the family, and then to the schools and society. Everything you see, hear, feel, and learn should be engaged with peace education. We can call it practical peace education. And it starts with the mindset that we can achieve peace. HWPL aims to create a world like this.
That’s the reason why we designed the peace materials and textbooks under several times of advice so that we send the materials to every educational institute to help encourage peace education.”
Since last year, Romanian schools and organizations including Comuna Sottile College, 1 Mai Technical High-school of Ploiesti, and Master Peace have signed MOUs for further participation-based peace education and activities that customized for European culture using the peace materials provided by HWPL
{{Spreading a culture of peace with peace education yet needs a legally binding international framework for peace.
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“What HWPL is proposing is the new way of seeing topics such as anti-bullying, non-violent communication, and collaborative activities that are the very important currency in the Romanian educational system. The HWPL peace curriculum emphasizes the value of tolerance, care, social equality, peace, justice, cooperation, solidarity, and human right that can create a culture of peace. It helps us define peace and its value that would lead the students to the leaders of peace. I’d also like to stress that the students should be peace messengers and work for realizing peace with this systematic peace education.” Magellan Isabel, a student of Mihai Viteazu National College, expressed her impression of the HWPL peace education.
Mr. Dragomir Marian, President of Master Peace, said “My belief, that made me work with HWPL with its peace education curriculum, is that education in personality, skill, value, and attitude is important for social, economic, and political development in any country. This role is well articulated in the “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” No. 4 containing a quality education for all to promote lifelong learning. This is also shared by article 10,
“Spreading a culture of peace”, in the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW) which mentions that education is important to promote respect and mutual understanding among different religions, ideologies, and ethnic groups.”
The DPCW consisting of 10 articles and 38 clauses addresses principles of conflict resolution and international cooperation for peacebuilding such as respect on the international law, peaceful dispute settlement, and spreading a culture of peace. Currently, it is in the process of submitting this declaration as a resolution to the UN in order to develop it into a legally binding document, while citizens around the world are supporting it by participating “Peace Letter Campaign”.
“Articles 1 to 5 of the DPCW deal with preventing conflicts, articles 6 and 7 are about resolving conflicts, and articles 8 to 10 present the measures for the sustainable peaceful global society. This declaration is different from existing clauses of international law because it offers a comprehensive solution and compassing principles for conflict resolution according to the international order,” said Mr. Young Min Chung, Director of the IPYG.
“The future is counting on us to complete the world of peace. Let’s take what we’ve learned from the peace education and put it into our lives as peaceful citizens. World peace can be achieved with the DPCW that will lay the foundation of international law toward world peace. I invite you all to join the “Peace Letter Campaign”.” He urged for the participation for establishing a legally binding international framework for peace based on the DPCW.
The conference held in April 2nd was hosted by Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), an international NGO under UN ECOSOC, organized by Master Peace, a youth group of Romania, and sponsored by International Peace Youth Group (IPYG).
