'Tip of the iceberg:' Nations struggle to count virus toll
Source: AP
By ARITZ PARRA, MIKE CORDER and KEN MORITSUGU 22 minutes ago
BEIJING (AP) China acknowledged Friday that the coronavirus death toll for the epicenter of Wuhan was 50% higher than previously reported a major revision that underscored how countries facing an unprecedented public health crisis are struggling to keep accurate counts of the pandemics true toll.
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As virus deaths mounted with the United States reporting the nations highest daily death toll yet at nearly 4,600 the economic devastation from lockdowns designed to curb the coronavirus is becoming even more shocking.
Unemployment in the United States rose 5.2 million, bringing the four-week total to a staggering 22 million workers. Chinas economy shrank 6.8% in the quarter ending in March from the same period a year ago, its worst contraction since before market-style economic reforms began in 1979. And in Europe, car sales tanked 55% last month amid the lockdowns, a drop twice as steep as during the 2008-09 global financial crisis.
Authorities and experts say both infections and virus deaths have been under-reported almost everywhere. Thousands of people have died with COVID-19 symptoms many in nursing homes, which have been ravaged by a disease that hits the elderly the hardest without ever being tested. Four months into the outbreak, nations are still struggling to lift their testing capacities and many are still far from their announced goals.
Spain on Friday ordered the countrys 17 autonomous regions to unify the criteria on counting the dead from the pandemic. Spain has counted more than 19,000 virus deaths out of more than 182,000 infections, but the system leaves out the patients who died with symptoms but were not tested..................
Read more: https://apnews.com/a4ec3cc7888ff2d58b5618e9f890b9c6
bucolic_frolic
(42,676 posts)Despite permanent drops in travel, commuting, miles driven, commercial office occupancy, retail stores, consumption.
Something's not right.
Dopers_Greed
(2,640 posts)They'll be able to pay lower wages, and be even pickier about job candidates
flying_wahini
(6,529 posts)Or could be that cheapskate employers will have to pay more for skilled workers.
Gonna be Lots of Jobs in NYC.
jayschool2013
(2,309 posts)Who's with me?
Politicub
(12,163 posts)It's bizarre. I don't get it. I guess they could be that low with their aggressive response. But their population is so large.
Wouldn't their other mega-cities become hotspots? It only takes one infected person to start the spread.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist about China; the numbers seem off, though.