This archive report was first published on 29 June 2020.
Global Death Toll Surpasses Half a Million as Confirmed Cases Reach 10 Million ¶
As of Sunday, the global death toll from the coronavirus had surpassed half a million, while confirmed cases had reached 10 million, according to a New York Times database.
More than a quarter of all known deaths have been in the United States, where the number of confirmed infections has taken about 40 days to double. Public health officials say the number of confirmed infections may be substantially underestimated, with data released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating that the actual figures in many regions are probably 10 times as high as reported.
According to the New York Times, the actual death toll in the United States and more than two dozen other countries is higher than has been officially reported, due to limited testing availability making it difficult to confirm that the virus was the cause of death.
Other countries, particularly Brazil and India, are also being hit with a large wave of new infections. While dozens of countries that took early steps to contain and track the pandemic have been able to control the virus within their borders, experts fear that fatigue with lockdowns and social distancing has allowed the virus to spread with renewed intensity.
Kim Victory, a 31-year-old woman from Tennessee, was hospitalized with severe respiratory failure caused by the coronavirus. She experienced nightmarish visions, including being burned alive and turned into an ice sculpture, during her hospitalization.
Many coronavirus patients are reporting similar experiences, known as hospital delirium. Reports from hospitals and researchers suggest that about two-thirds to three-quarters of coronavirus patients in I.C.U.'s have experienced it in various ways.
Coronavirus cases are rising quickly in Houston, with Harris County averaging more than 1,100 new cases each day. Measures to cope with the surge and to plan for its peak were evident over the weekend at Houston Methodist Hospital, which called nurses to work extra shifts and brought new laboratory instruments on line to test thousands more samples a day.
As the virus spreads in many countries in Africa, it is threatening to push as many as 58 million people in the region into extreme poverty, experts at the World Bank say. The pandemic is also whittling away at one of Africa's signature achievements: the growth of its middle class.
