Covid-19: Death toll rises in Chinese city of Wuhan

By Vatican News

The Chinese city of Wuhan is where Covid-19 was first detected late last year. This region had reported 2,579 deaths, but on Friday that toll jumped by 1,290 fatalities.

According to a local government taskforce in charge of controlling the coronavirus in the country, this figure reflected incorrect reporting, delays and omissions.

China’s Foreign Minister has denied there has been a cover-up of the outbreak in the country, saying that these figures are the result of a statistical review to ensure accuracy.

The total number of cases in Wuhan now stands at 50,333. China also revised its national death toll on Friday to 4,632.

U.S. toll and economic downturn

Meanwhile, in the United States, fatalities in the country increased  by 1,200 on Thursday,  although it was a downward trend from the previous day which saw a record 2.507 people lose the lives to Coronavirus.

The United States is now the world's worst-affected country with 650,000 cases and 32,000 deaths.  The virus has also had a huge effect on the country’s economy.

In the last number of weeks, 20 million Americans have signed on for unemployment benefits as shops, restaurants and cafes remain closed.

On Thursday, seven Northeastern states prolonged a lockdown until May 15 in order to contain the outbreak.

As President Donald Trump prepares to outline his plan to end the shutdown in the least-affected states as early as May 1, experts are warning that the state of the U.S. economy  has fallen to levels not seen since 1929’s Great Depression.