Three billion under lockdown: UN warns virus threatens humanity

More than three billion people are living under lockdown measures to stem the spread of the killer coronavirus that the United Nations warned Wednesday is threatening all of humanity. As the global death toll soared past 20,000 Spain joined Italy in seeing its number of fatalities overtake China, where the virus first emerged just three months ago.
"COVID-19 is threatening the whole of humanity - and the whole of humanity must fight back," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, launching an appeal for $2 billion to help the world's poor. "Global action and solidarity are crucial. Individual country responses are not going to be enough."
Markets rebounded after Washington vowed to spend $2 trillion to fend off a US economic collapse, while governments elsewhere are still taking ever more dramatic steps to contain the disease. India's stay-at-home order for its 1.3 billion people is now the biggest, taking the total number of people facing restrictions on their daily lives to more than three billion.
Russia, which announced the death of two patients who tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday, is expected to follow suit. President Vladimir Putin declared next week a public holiday and postponed a public vote on controversial constitutional reforms, urging people to help each other and follow instructions given by medics and the authorities.
In Britain, heir to the throne Prince Charles became the latest high-profile figure to become infected while Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the country's response to tackle the outbreak despite accusations it was slow to act.
The G20 major economies will hold an emergency videoconference summit on Thursday to discuss a global response to the crisis, as will the 27 leaders of the European Union, the outbreak's new epicentre. China has begun to relax its own draconian restrictions on free movement in the province of Hubei - the original epicentre of the outbreak - after the country reported no new cases.
Huge crowds jammed trains and buses as people in the province of 50 million people took their first opportunity to travel. But Spain saw the number of deaths surge to 3,434 after more than 738 people died in the past 24 hours and the government announced a 432-million-euro ($467 million) deal to buy medical supplies from Beijing.
'PEOPLE DYING ALONE'At La Paz university hospital in Madrid, accident and emergency nurse Guillen del Barrio sounded bereft as he related what happened overnight.
"It is really hard, we had feverish people for many hours in the waiting room," the 30-year-old told AFP. "Many of my colleagues were crying because there were people who are dying alone, without seeing their family for the last time."
Spain and Italy were joined by France and six more EU countries in urging Germany and the Netherlands to allow the issue of joint European bonds to cut borrowing costs and stabilise the eurozone economy.
This is likely to fall on deaf ears when the 27 leaders talk on Thursday - with northern members wary of pooling debt with big spenders - but they will sign off on an "unprecedented" recovery plan. Coronavirus cases are also spreading in the Middle East, where Iran's death toll topped 2,000, and in Africa, where Mali declaring its first case and several nations announced states of emergency.
And in Japan, which has postponed this year's Olympic Games, Tokyo's governor urged residents to stay home this weekend, warning of a possible "explosion" of the coronavirus. The impact of the pandemic is also hitting European football in a big way, with top-flight leagues and tournaments cancelled.