Worldwide Covid-19 Death Toll Soars Past 170,000 

By Staff, Agencies

The Coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 170,000 lives around the globe, the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University show, as regions of the US – the world’s top Covid-19 hot spot – gear up to lift lock down measures.

The university’s worldwide death tally reached 170,042 on Monday evening, as both cases and fatalities kept climbing across scores of nations. 

Though the overall mortality rate will continue to fluctuate as new data becomes available, the current global average is now somewhere just under seven percent, according to statistics gathered by Worldometer. 

Eight countries have observed fatality rates above 10 percent, while the US – which has the highest total death toll – recently moved up slightly to 5.36 percent, still falling below the world average.

As the health crisis drags on, however, several countries are preparing to reopen their economies, which have suffered under sweeping lock down measures, including business closures and varying levels of travel restrictions. Germany, Norway, Poland, and the Czech Republic, among others, have all signaled intentions to scale back the measures in the coming days, with Germany already allowing some businesses to reopen on Monday. 

But some harder-hit European countries, such as Spain and France, will take more time, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stating that the measures were working, but the “results are still not enough and still fragile.” France’s lock down, meanwhile, will continue for at least another three weeks.

The US – the worst-affected nation in the pandemic in terms of cases and deaths – has also begun considering how to open its economy, with US President Donald Trump allowing state governors to decide exactly how and when to re-open with guidelines issued last week.