Global deaths from coronavirus pass 280,000

Monitoring Desk

PARIS: More than 280,000 people have now died from the new coronavirus, most of whom were in Europe and the United States, according to a tally by AFP from official sources at 1635 GMT on Sunday.

In total, 280,011 deaths have been registered throughout the world, of which 156,095 were in Europe, the most-affected continent. The United States is the country that has recorded most deaths at 78,862. It is followed by Britain (31,855), Italy (30,560), Spain (26,621) and France (26,380).

On the other hand, the coronavirus crisis in Italy is depriving around 700,000 children of sufficient food, the country s main farmers  organisation said.

Economic hardship due to the health crisis had been made worse by the closure of schools meaning that children from poor families no longer had access to canteen lunches, Coldiretti said.

“The number of children under 15 that need assistance to get milk or food is now 700,000,” it said in a statement.

People being plunged into poverty by the crisis included dependents of seasonal and temporary workers, small business owners and tradesmen, it said.

Undocumented workers were also hard hit as typically they had no savings and did not qualify for state help.

Southern Italy was most-affected by the increase in numbers of those facing hardship.

Compounding the problem were rising food prices, with Coldiretti reporting an increase of 8.4 percent for fruit, 5.0 percent for vegetables and 4.1 percent for milk in April.

Meanwhile, hundreds of charitable associations across Italy are trying to help the poor.

Coldiretti said 39 percent of Italians surveyed indicated they were ready to support their efforts with donations of money or food.

Courtesy: (AFP)