Coronavirus: 'Hardest, saddest' week coming, says US surgeon general

New York state reported 594 deaths from the coronavirus and 8,327 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, increasing the numbers to 4,159 dead and 122,000 cases since the outbreak began, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday.

But he said there was good news in that the number of people discharged from the hospital was three times as great as the number of newly hospitalized people, relieving stress on the healthcare system.

Cuomo has become a leading national voice on the coronavirus pandemic as his state accounts for more than a third of US cases and more than 40 percent of deaths.

The rate of new coronavirus infections and deaths in Spain slowed again on Sunday as the country, suffering from one of the world's worst outbreaks of the pandemic, began its fourth week under a near-total lockdown.

Deaths from the highly infectious COVID-19 respiratory disease rose to 12,418 on Saturday - the second highest worldwide after Italy. However, the toll of 674 people who died during the past 24 hours was down from Saturday's 809 and well below Thursday's daily record of 950, the Health Ministry said.

Sunday's rise represented a 6% increase in total deaths, about half the rate reported a week ago.

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The United States enters one of the most critical weeks so far in the coronavirus crisis with the death toll exploding in New York, Michigan and Louisiana and some governors calling for a national order to stay at home.

New York is the hardest-hit state with more than 40 percent of all US deaths and nearly 115,000 reported cases on Saturday.

Bodies of victims of COVID-19, the flu-like respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, were stacked in bright orange bags inside a makeshift morgue outside the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, according to photos provided to Reuters.

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Former Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said on Sunday the party may be forced to host a "virtual" nominating convention in August due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

The Democratic Party already postponed its convention from July to August last week, citing worries over the outbreak that has prompted a majority of US states to order their residents to stay at home to contain the disease's spread.

"We may have to do a virtual convention," Biden said on ABC's "This Week" program. "I think we should be thinking about that right now ... We may not be able to put 10, 20, 30,000 people in one place."

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About 20 million jobs are at risk in Africa as the continent's economies are projected to shrink this year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according an African Union (AU) study.

So far, Africa accounts for just a fraction of total cases of the disease which has infected more than one million people worldwide, according to a Reuters tally.

But African economies are already facing an impending global economic downturn, plummeting oil and commodity prices and an imploding tourism sector.

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The number of new coronavirus infections in Austria rose on Sunday to 11,897, but the Alpine country reported more newly recovered than newly diagnosed patients and a declining number of people in intensive care.

On Sunday morning the number of new cases had risen by 270 since Saturday morning, while the number of recoveries rose by 491, according to the health ministry. It said the daily rate of new COVID-19 infections has fallen significantly in recent days.

“These are some hopeful figures, but now...we must remain consistent and not give up...Hence my appeal: No private Easter celebrations and Easter holidays,” said Health Minister Rudolf Anschober.

The United Kingdom’s death toll from the coronavirus rose by 621 to 4,934 at 1600 GMT on April 4, the health ministry said on Sunday.

As of 0800 GMT, a total of 195,524 people had been tested of which 47,806 tested positive, the health ministry said.

Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air (WIZZ.L) is repatriating citizens and transporting medical equipment for east European governments, in a move coupling one-off charter traffic with savvy government relations amid the coronavirus crisis.

Wizz Air is one of several airlines involved in the largest peacetime repatriation effort in Europe as travel firms turn their attention from tourists to serving governments. "We try to do the right thing," Wizz Air Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi told Reuters. "Yes, governments and other institutions pay for the flights, but this is not the time to make a profit ... The most important issue here is to help."

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Ethiopia has reported its first death of a COVID-19 patient, a 60-year old woman who was in treatment at a hospital in the capital since March 31, the Health Minister Lia Tadesse said on Sunday.

The Horn of Africa nation has a total of 43 confirmed cases of the disease, which is caused by the new coronavirus, and has reported four recoveries.

Albania reported 28 new cases of the new coronavirus on Sunday and said a failure to respect social distancing had led to the highest numbers of infections over the last three days.

The COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus has killed 20, infected 361 and caused three to need help breathing, the Public Health Institute said. It added that 104 had recovered.

Despite a lockdown monitored by police and the army and hefty fines, some Albanians have slipped through to buy food. Two were caught having coffee and brandy outside. Mourners who attended a funeral in a northern town also spread the contagion.

The number of deaths caused by the new coronavirus in the Netherlands has increased by 115 to 1,766, health authorities said on Sunday.

Confirmed infections increased by 1,224 to 17,851, the Dutch Institute for Public Health said.

Parisians have been warned not to succumb to the tempting sunny spring weather and to remain indoors to help fight the spread of the coronavirus that has killed 7,560 in France.

France, like other countries, has confined its residents to home since March 17 to curb the spread of the virus. The measures have been extended until April 15, and are likely to be extended again.

Several guests on Sunday televisions shows, including doctors, were alarmed by images of many Parisians out and about along the banks of the river Seine and on car-less streets and sidewalks, jogging, strolling and enjoying the sunny weather.

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Singapore’s health ministry on Sunday confirmed 120 more coronavirus cases, the most new infections reported in a single day for the city-state.

The number of new cases is a 60 percent increase over the 75 reported on Saturday, which was the previous biggest rise. Singapore has reported a total of 1,309 infections and suffered six deaths from the global pandemic.

Italy's health minister outlined plans on Sunday for broader testing and beefed-up heath services as part of a package of measures that would follow a future easing of the country's coronavirus lockdown.

Roberto Speranza said it was too early to say when Italy would be able to lift the measures imposed across the country on March 9, when it became the first country in Europe to impose a general lockdown to slow the spread of the virus.

With more than 15,000 dead, Italy has the world's highest death toll from disease, accounting on its own for almost a quarter of all deaths globally. But the government is also grappling with the economic devastation caused by the sudden halt to business across the country.

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Pope Francis marked a surreal Palm Sunday in an empty St. Peter's Basilica, urging people living through the coronavirus pandemic not to be so concerned with what they lack but how they can ease the suffering of others.

The service, kicking off Holy Week events leading to Easter, usually attracts tens of thousands of people to a St. Peter's Square bedecked with olive and palm trees. The service normally includes a long procession of cardinals, priests and faithful carrying palm fronds.

This time, it was held from a secondary altar behind the main one Francis normally uses and attended by only about two dozen people, including a few aides, nuns and a scaled-down choir, all practicing social distancing.

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More than 130 people were newly infected with the novel coronavirus in Tokyo, Japan’s NHK public broadcaster reported on Sunday, citing officials from the metropolitan government.

It was the highest daily jump in confirmed cases so far, bringing the number of positive cases in the capital to more than 1,000, NHK said.

Tokyo’s metropolitan government has strongly urged people to stay at home as the city of 13 million has seen an uptick in the number of cases in recent days.

Governor Yuriko Koike appeared on a morning news programme on Sunday and repeated her call to residents to avoid unnecessary outings, saying that “lives were at stake”.

Global cases of the new coronavirus have shot past 1 million with more than 64,000 fatalities. Japan has so far been spared the kind of explosive surge seen in Europe, the United States and elsewhere, with some 3,000 cases and 73 deaths as of Friday.

In light of the increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases in Tokyo, there have been a growing call on the central government to call for a “state of emergency,” which unlike in other countries, comes with limited enforcement power in Japan.

Germany’s confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 5,936 in the past 24 hours to 91,714 on Sunday, the third straight drop in the daily rate of new cases, according to data from the government’s Robert Koch Institute.

Sunday’s figure amounted to a drop of 146 cases compared with 6,082 new infections recorded on Saturday, itself a fall from 6,174 new infections on Friday.

The reported death toll rose by 184 to 1,342.

South Sudan has confirmed its first case of COVID-19, its vice president said on Sunday, becoming the latest African nation to report a case of the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Riek Machar said a 29-year old patient arrived in the country from Ethiopia on February 28, and that she was being treated in isolation.

Several flights carrying Lebanese stranded abroad by coronavirus lockdowns began arriving in Beirut on Sunday, part of a trial run to see whether thousands looking to come home can be safely repatriated without worsening the country’s outbreak.

Their return became a charged issue after powerful parliament speaker Nabih Berri threatened to suspend support for the government if it did not act quickly and other top figures urged immediate action.

Lebanon’s crippling financial crisis including tight capital controls has complicated the plight of Lebanese stuck abroad, with tough restrictions on accessing cash. The government has pledged to help ease bank transfers for students overseas.

South Korea said on Saturday it will extend its intensive social distancing campaign scheduled to end on Monday by two weeks in a bid to curb the rate of coronavirus infections to around 50 a day.

The country has largely managed to bring under control Asia's largest epidemic outside China with around 100 or fewer new daily cases. But smaller outbreaks in churches, hospitals and nursing homes, as well as infections among travelers, continue to emerge.

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The death toll in Iran from the outbreak of the new coronavirus has reached 3,603, health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement broadcast live on state TV on Sunday.

One hundred and fifty one people have died in the past twenty four hours, he said.

A view of beds at a shopping mall, one of Iran's largest, which has been turned into a centre to receive patients suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Tehran, Iran, April 4, 2020. WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Ali Khara via REUTERS

The Islamic Republic, the Middle Eastern country worst-hit by the epidemic, now has a total of 58,226 infections, Jahanpur said.

Switzerland’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has risen by 19 to 559, the health ministry said on Sunday.

The number of people testing positive increased to 21,100 from 20,278 on Saturday, it said.

Switzerland has tested more than 158,000 people for COVID-19.

India is restricting the export of most diagnostic testing kits, as coronavirus cases in the South Asian nation topped 3,350 on Sunday despite a three-week nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the respiratory disease.

India, which in recent weeks already banned the export of certain drugs, along with ventilators, masks and other protective gear needed by both patients and medical staff, issued the latest directive on Saturday.

The move comes even as US President Donald Trump urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a phone call on Saturday, to release supplies of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which is being tested as a possible treatment for patients with COVID-19 - the disease caused by the coronavirus.

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Malaysia on Sunday reported 179 new coronavirus cases, raising the cumulative total to 3,662 cases as Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy grapples with the highest number of infections in the region.

The new cases include 4 deaths, raising the tally to 61 people who have died as of noon on Sunday, the health ministry said.

Indonesia has ordered its citizens to wear cloth face masks when going outside as the numbers of coronavirus infections rise to 2,273 on Sunday, Health Ministry official Achmad Yurianto said.

“Everybody must wear face masks. Surgical masks and N95 masks are only for medical workers, but wear cloth masks because many asymptomatic cases were found out there,” Yurianto said told a news briefing.

The Southeast Asian country reported 181 new cases on Sunday, while the death toll rose by 7 to 198.

Iran's president said on Sunday "low-risk" economic activities would resume from April 11 in the Middle Eastern country worst-affected by the new coronavirus.

Iran has been struggling to curb the spread of the highly infectious respiratory disease known as COVID-19 but authorities are also concerned that measures to limit public life to contain the virus could wreck an already sanctions-battered economy.

"Under the supervision of the health ministry, all those low-risk economic activities will resume from Saturday," President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised meeting, adding that "those activities will resume in Tehran from April 18".

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It took Silvia Bertuletti 11 days of frantic phone calls to persuade a doctor to visit her 78-year-old father Alessandro, who was gripped by fever and struggling for breath.

When an on-call physician did go to her house near Bergamo, at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy, on the evening of March 18, it was too late.

Alessandro Bertuletti was pronounced dead at 1:10 am on March 19, 10 minutes before an ambulance called hours earlier arrived. The only medication he had been prescribed, over the phone, was a mild painkiller and a broad-spectrum antibiotic.

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Germany's coronavirus death toll has risen to 1,342, the country’s disease and control agency, the Robert Koch Institute, said today.

That figure is an increase of 184 deaths on Saturday, CNN reported. 

Cars wait in line at a drive-in coronavirus check facility as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Munich, Germany, March 30, 2020. REUTERS/Andreas Gebert

The total number of confirmed cases has risen by nearly 7‪% from Saturday to Sunday. Germany now has 91,714 coronavirus cases, an increase of 5,936 in 24 hours.

Japan has confirmed 336 new coronavirus cases including 118 in Tokyo alone . One additional death was confirmed, CNN reported. 

Nearly 4,000 cases have now been identified in the country, 712 related to the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Eighty-one people have died, including 11 from the Diamond Princess.

The Philippine health ministry reported on Sunday 8 additional coronavirus deaths and 152 newly confirmed cases.

The positive cases in the Philippines totalled 3,246, as of 0800 GMT, while the death toll has risen to 152, Reuters reported. 

More than 1.2 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed globally, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Some 64,774 people have died globally while over 246,000 people have recovered, Al Jazeera reported.  

People wearing protective masks are pictured amid coronavirus outbreak/Reuters

Two more people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Dharavi slum in Mumbai, the largest slum in Asia, bringing the total to four, CNN reported. 

Among the new cases are a 30-year-old woman who lives in the same building as a patient who died on April 1, and a 35-year-old doctor, according to Kiran Dighavkar, assistant commissioner of Mumbai’s civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). 

Daily wage workers and homeless people watch television inside a government-run night shelter during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the old quarters of Delhi, India March 31, 2020. Picture Taken March 31, 2020/ Reuters

Home to around 1 million people, Dharavi slum has a population density almost 30 times greater than New York -- about 280,000 people per square kilometer.

India’s Health Ministry announced on April 3 that the government is sending 4,000 health workers to test people living in the slum.

Sri Lanka has released 2,961 inmates in the past two weeks as part of an effort to reduce congestion in prisons during the novel coronavirus pandemic. 

Those released include people who had served a major portion of their sentences or were being held in remand for minor offences and had been unable to pay bail, Sri Lanka's president Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in a post on Twitter, Al Jazeera reported.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI has pardoned 5,654 prisoners and ordered measures to protect inmates from the coronavirus outbreak, the justice ministry said today.

The inmates were selected on the basis of their age, frail health, time spent in prison and good conduct, Reuters reported.

The north African country has confirmed as of Sunday morning 919 coronavirus cases, including 59 deaths.

Dubai announced a two-week lockdown starting on April 4 to disinfect the emirate and contain the spread of the coronavirus

Dubai warned that mobility would be restricted and legal action taken against violators, Reuters reported adding that supermarkets and pharmacies as well as food and drug delivery services would continue to operate as normal, Reuters reported. 

Photo: Reuters

The oil-rich federation has reported an uptick in coronavirus cases with several hundred people diagnosed since April 1 and a total number of cases of 1,505.

Greece has quarantined a second migrant facility this week after a 53-year-old man tested positive for coronavirus, the migration ministry said today.

Tha Afghan man, who was found to be infected, lives with his family at the Malakasa camp along with hundreds of other migrants and asylum seekers. He has been transferred to a hospital in Athens, Reuters reported.

On April 2, authorities quarantined the Ritsona camp in central Greece after 20 asylum seekers tested positive for coronavirus. It was the first such facility in Greece to be hit since the outbreak of the disease.

The camp in Malakasa, 40km (25 miles) northeast of Athens, will be put into quarantine for two weeks, the ministry said, adding that police guarding the site would be reinforced.

Indian confirmed 3,374 Covid-19 cases inside the country as of today morning, the country's Health Ministry reported.

A total of 302 cases and two fatalities have been reported since Saturday evening, CNN reported.

FILE PHOTO: Migrant workers, who work in textile looms, are seen outside a loom after it was shut due to the 21-day nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease, in Bhiwandi on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, April 1, 2020. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

Seventy-seven patients have died, while 267 have been discharged, the ministry reported.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday postponed moving civil servants to a planned new administrative capital city to 2021 from 2020 due to the coronavirus epidemic, a blow to a flagship project for Sisi that has already faced delays.

Members of the medical team spray disinfectant as a precautionary move amid concerns over the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak at the Great Pyramids, Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, March 25, 2020/ Reuters

Sisi also postponed the launch of some other big projects including the Grand Egyptian Museum and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization to next year, the presidency said in a statement, Reuters reported. 

The decision was "due to the circumstances and repercussions of the process of combating the spread of the new Coronavirus either at the national level or globally," it said.

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Brazil's lower house of Congress approved a constitutional amendment for a "war budget" to separate coronavirus-related spending from the government's main budget and shield the economy as the country surpassed 10,000 confirmed cases.

The war budget still needs the Senate's approval by three-fifths of the votes in two rounds expected to take place next week, Reuters reported.

A man rides a bicycle at a street market in the Ceilandia neighbourhood after authorities announced measures due to the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Brasilia, Brazil March 17, 2020/ Reuters

Late on Friday, the lower house approved the main text of the bill with 423 votes in favor and one opposed in a second round of voting after a first score of 505 in favor and two against.

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The total number of deaths from the coronavirus in France reached a new high on Saturday as the government included more previously unreported deaths in nursing homes.

The health ministry reported 441 new deaths from COVID-19 in the country's hospitals on Saturday - less than the high of 588 reported on Friday - for a total hospital death tally of 5,532.

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Thailand reported 102 new coronavirus cases and three more deaths, the country's public health ministry said today.

A tourist wears a protective mask at Wat Pho, Buddha Temple which is usually full of tourists, amid fear of coronavirus at Bangkok, Thailand March 16, 2020/ Reuters

The latest numbers raised the total in the Southeast Asian nation to 2,169 cases. Twenty three people have died in Thailand since the outbreak first emerged in January, Reuters reported. 

The virus-hit Coral Princess cruise ship, with two dead and at least a dozen infected passengers on board, docked Saturday in Miami after being turned away from several Latin American ports in a month-long odyssey.

"All of us at Princess Cruises are deeply saddened to report that two guests passed away on Coral Princess," the cruise company said in a statement sent to AFP.

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Spain recorded a second successive daily drop in coronavirus-related deaths with 809 fatalities, official figures showed Saturday.

The total number of deaths in Spain now stands at 11,744, second only to Italy. A record 950 people died on Thursday, AFP reported. 

Coronavirus patients arrive at a military hospital set up at the IFEMA conference centre in Madrid, Spain, March 21, 2020. Picture taken March 21, 2020. Comunidad de Madrid/Handout via REUTERS

The number of new cases also slowed at 7,026, taking the total to 124,736.

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Mainland China reported 30 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, up from 19 a day earlier as the number of cases involving travellers from abroad as well as local transmissions increased, highlighting the difficulty in stamping out the outbreak.

People wearing protective masks walk in a shopping district, following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Beijing, China, March 25, 2020/ Reuters

The National Health Commission said in a statement on Sunday that 25 of the latest cases involved people who had entered from abroad, compared with 18 such cases a day earlier. Five new locally transmitted infections were also reported on Saturday, all in the southern coastal province of Guangdong, up from a day earlier, Reuters reported.

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Britain on Saturday reported 708 more deaths from COVID-19 — the fourth successive daily high — as the number of confirmed cases rose to nearly 42,000.

“As of 9am (0800 GMT) 4 April, a total of 183,190 people have been tested of which 41,903 tested positive. As of 5pm on 3 April, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 4,313 have sadly died,” the health ministry said in a statement, AFP reported.

New York state's coronavirus toll rose at a devastating pace to 3,565 deaths Saturday, the governor said, up from 2,935 the previous day, the largest 24-hour jump recorded there.

The state has now recorded 113,704 positive cases — 63,306 in New York City, where 2,624 have died — just 6,000 short of hard-hit Italy's total number of cases, AFP reported. 

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Switzerland on Saturday saw the number of cases of the new coronavirus in the country pass 20,000, as its death toll in the pandemic swelled past 500.

The health ministry said 20,201 people in Switzerland had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Saturday morning — nearly 1,000 more than a day earlier, AFP reported. 

Patients arrive to a medical screening tent for coronavirus testing outside the University Hospital of Geneva (HUG), in Geneva, Switzerland March 17, 2020/ Reuters

The small Alpine country of some 8.5 million people is thus one of the worst hit compared to population size, now counting 236 registered infections per 100,000 people.

At the same time, an additional 76 people died over the past 24 hours, bringing Switzerland’s death toll in the pandemic to 540, the health ministry said.

Panama's health ministry on Saturday registered 1,801 cases of the novel coronavirus in the Central American county, an increase of 128 cases from a day earlier. The number of deaths increased by five to 46, Reuters reported. 

The number of confirmed new coronavirus cases in the United States passed the 300,000 mark on Saturday, while more than 8,160 people have died from complications related to Covid-19.

The US has about 25 per cent of all global confirmed cases, though testing across the world is uneven, Reuters reported. 

A medic prepares a stretcher to transfer a patient into an ambulance at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, the long-term care facility linked to several confirmed coronavirus cases in the state, in Kirkland, Washington, US March 5, 2020/ Reuters

The US had just 1,000 cases and about 30 deaths on March 10.

New York State remains the hardest hit area of the US, with more than a third of all cases and about 40 per cent of the deaths.

In defending his strategy against the deadly coronavirus, President Donald Trump repeatedly has said he slowed its spread into the United States by acting decisively to bar travelers from China on Jan. 31.

"I was criticized by the Democrats when I closed the Country down to China many weeks ahead of what almost everyone recommended. Saved many lives," he tweeted, for instance, on March 2.

But Reuters has found that the administration took a month from the time it learned of the outbreak in late December to impose the initial travel restrictions amid furious infighting.

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Spain’s coronavirus death toll has risen by 674 to 12,418 in the last day, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

A day earlier the toll rose by 809.

The number of registered cases rose to 130,759 from 124,736, the ministry said.

UK deaths from the coronavirus could rise to between about 7,000 and 20,000 under measures taken to slow the spread of the virus, Neil Ferguson, a professor at Imperial College in London who has helped shape the government's response, said on Sunday.

"We had an exponentially growing curve of infections which we interrupted at a certain time," the epidemiologist told the BBC's Andrew Marr program.

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