As Argentina prepared for a potential peak of Covid-19 infections in the coming weeks, European countries in contrast further eased coronavirus restrictions on Friday in a bid to stem the economic damage from lockdowns.
The move comes despite fears of a second wave of a disease with no cure that continues to ravage most of the globe.
US President Donald Trump has held out hope of a vaccine by year's end but much of the world is instead learning to live as best it can under the shadow of the disease that has killed more than 300,000 people globally.
While Europe unlocks after reducing the number of new infections, cases continue to soar in many other parts of the world while the economic and political fallout grows apace.
The hunt for a vaccine for a disease that the World Health Organisation says may never disappear has also threatened to become a source of tension between the globe's haves and have nots, with trials underway in various countries.
Meanwhile the virus's march continues around the world. At least 4,491,730 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 1,571,100 are now considered recovered, an AFP tally revealed yesterday.
As of 3pm Friday local time, at least 304,619 fatalities from Covid-19 have been recorded since the outbreak first emerged in China last December, the agency said.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the WHO, probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are testing only the most serious cases.
Over the past 24 hours, 4,981 deaths and 96,039 new cases have been recorded, with the most new fatalities reported in the United States with 1,759, Brazil with 844 and Britain with 384.
The US also has the highest number of deaths overall with 86,744 from 1,429,990 cases. At least 246,414 have been declared recovered. Britain has the second-highest toll with 33,998 deaths from 236,711 cases. It is followed by Italy with 31,610 deaths and 223,885 cases, France with 27,529 deaths and 178,870 infections and Spain with 27,459 fatalities and 230,183 cases.
Latin America and the Caribbean has now recorded 25,690 deaths and 454,107 confirmed cases of Covid-19.
– TIMES/AFP
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