The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus defended the body’s record in its response to the new coronavirus, saying it has acted “quickly and decisively” since the beginning.
Worldwide, the number of confirmed infections stood at 3.1 million, with more than 224,600 deaths and 957,000 recoveries.
US health expert Anthony Fauci welcomed the news that experimental antiviral drug remdesivir helped improve outcomes for COVID-19 patients during a clinical trial by Gilead Sciences Inc.
Here are the latest updates:
Thursday, April 30
00:33 GMT – Cities face 100 million ‘new poor’ in post-pandemic world
About 100 million people living in cities worldwide will likely fall into poverty due to the coronavirus pandemic, experts say, calling for mapping tools to identify vulnerable communities and investment focusing on slum areas.
“Within cities, we need to focus on those who need help the most, the poor and the vulnerable have been very seriously affected,” says Sameh Wahba, global director for the World Bank’s urban, disaster risk management, resilience and land global practice.
“Our estimate is that there will be possibly upward of a 100 million so-called ‘new poor’ on account of losses of jobs and livelihoods and income,” Wahba tells a webinar with members of the media.
Without data, government food and financial aid is not reaching slum areas where about one billion people live worldwide, adds activist Sheela Patel.
| COVID-19: A moment of silence for fallen front-line workers in UK (2:44) |
00:26 GMT: UK to test 100,000 people to check coronavirus spread
The United Kingdom’s health ministry says it plans to test a randomly chosen group of 100,000 people for the new coronavirus as part of its efforts to understand infection rates better before loosening restrictions on the public.
The tests to see if people are currently infected with the respiratory disease is led by London’s Imperial College and polling company Ipsos MORI. The chosen people will be sent self-testing kits to see if they are infected.
Britain’s government is due to review next week whether to relax a nationwide lockdown brought in on March 23 to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which has so far killed more than 26,000 people in Britain.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives. You can find all the key developments from yesterday, April 29, here.
SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies
