Covid-19 - Global death toll passes 300 000

36 million Americans unemployed,  Infections near 4.5m; Europe halts delivery of faulty Chinese face masks; WHO says Covid-19 may never go

Global death toll passes 300,000. The global death toll from Covid-19 has passed 300,000, with nearly 4.5 million people infected. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, at least 301,370 people have now died as a result of the outbreak and there are 4,426,937 confirmed cases worldwide. It’s important to point out that the actual death toll is believed to be far higher than the tally compiled from government figures.

Sanofi will no longer prioritise the US if it develops a vaccine. The French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi rowed back on a promise to prioritise the US market if the company develops a coronavirus vaccine. The company’s CEO Paul Hudson sparked controversy by saying the US had “the right to the largest pre-order because it’s invested in taking the risk”.

Nearly 600,000 Australians have lost their jobs during the pandemic. Almost 600,000 Australians lost their jobs between March and April, unemployment rose to 6.2%, the underemployment rate increased by 4.9 points to 13.7% and the underutilisation rate increased by 5.9 points to 19.9%.

Doctors in Italy and France report spike in rare inflammatory syndrome linked to coronavirus. Doctors in northern Italy, one of the areas hardest hit by coronavirus, and in France have reported spikes in cases of a rare inflammatory syndrome in young children that appears similar to one reported in the US, Britain and Spain, according to a report in the Lancet.

Donald Trump visits a mask distribution centre without wearing a mask himself. Donald Trump toured a mask distribution centre in the political swing state of Pennsylvania on Thursday but without wearing a mask himself.

Concern is mounting in the Rohingya refugee camps after man tests positive for Covid-19. A Rohingya man has become the first person to test positive for Covid-19 in the vast refugee camps in Bangladesh that is home to almost one million people, officials said Thursday.

36 million Americans are now unemployed as another 3 million filed for benefits. The latest figures from the Department of Labor show the rate of claims is slowing but the record-breaking pace of layoffs has already pushed unemployment to levels unseen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Mental health problems sparked by the pandemic need urgently addressing. Governments, health authorities and civil society groups should urgently address mental health problems sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, the UN secretary general has said.

A quarter of Covid-19 patients who have died in England had diabetes. A quarter of Covid-19 patients who have died in hospitals in England had diabetes, according to figures released by NHS England.

Europe suspends delivery of 10m faulty Chinese face masks.

The European commission has suspended the delivery of 10 million face masks from China after two countries complained about the poor quality of the batches they received, the Associated Pressreports.

As part of its efforts to tackle the Covid-19 crisis, this month the commission, the European Union’s executive arm, started dispatching the masks to health care workers in its 27 member states and the UK.

After a first batch of 1.5 million masks was shipped to 17 states, Poland’s health minister, Lukasz Szumowski, said the 600,000 items his country received did not have European certificates and failed to comply with the medical standards required for their distribution.

“We have decided to suspend future deliveries of these masks,” the commission’s health spokesman, Stefan De Keersmaecker, said. “We will then see what action needs to be taken if there is indeed a quality problem with these masks.”

According to De Keersmaecker, the Netherlands has identified similar problems.

The whole stock of masks was purchased from a Chinese provider via a EU fund.