US Pres-ident Donald Trump threatened to cut ties with China over its role in the spread of the coronavirus, as the global death toll from the disease topped 300,000. Despite fears of a second wave of infections, national and local governments around the world are easing lockdown orders as they try to get stalled economies moving again.
But there were warnings Friday that some of the world's poorest people remain the most vulnerable, with predictions that a quarter of a billion Africans could be infected without urgent action.
The nexus of poverty and risk was highlighted by the discovery of cases in the world's biggest refugee camp, where upwards of a million Rohingya live in squalor.
"We are looking at the very real prospect that thousands of people may die from COVID-19" in these camps, Save The Children's Bangladesh health director Shamim Jahan said.
"There are no intensive care beds at this moment" in the camps at Cox's Bazaar, Jahan said.
Track and trace teams were fanning out Friday to follow up on two positive tests. Epidemiologists have long warned that the virus could race through the cramped, sewage-soaked alleys of the camps, where the persecuted Muslim minority have lived since fleeing a military offensive in neighboring Myanmar more than two years ago.
Social distancing is all but impossible in such close quarters, and health experts say only a vaccine will prevent widespread infection. Despite scientists working flat out towards that aim, experts say it could still be many months - or even years - away. And without a robust roll-out plan, even highly developed countries could struggle to take advantage of any breakthrough.
In the US, the man formerly charged with developing a vaccine told lawmakers the government in Washington has no "master plan" to fight the pandemic and is unprepared to distribute enough vaccines to immunize millions of Americans.
"We don't have a single point of leadership right now for this response," said Rick Bright, who was removed from his job last month. The United States has registered almost 86,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 - the highest toll of any nation, with a third of all known global infections.
In an interview aired Thursday, Trump again accused Beijing of concealing the true scale of the problem after the virus emerged in Wuhan late last year.
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