By Spy Uganda
European governments have moved to halt the use of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients, and a second global trial was suspended, further blowing hopes for a treatment promoted by US President Donald Trump.
Brazil’s death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 25,000 people on Wednesday, the health ministry said. Deaths from the disease caused by the Coronavirus over the last 24 hours were 1,086, while the number of cases rose by 20,599, reaching 411,821.
The number of coronavirus cases in the Arab Gulf region, which includes Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Oman, has exceeded 200,000, as the largest economies, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have begun to ease restrictions.
More than 5.7 million cases of coronavirus have been confirmed around the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Around 356,000 people have died, while more than 2.3 million have recovered.
WHO official: Spike in European deaths since March linked to COVID-19
About 159,000 more people in 24 European countries have died since early March than would have ordinarily been expected, a World Health Organization official has said, adding a “significant proportion” of the spike is linked to COVID-19.
“What we have seen very clearly is that the peak in excess mortality corresponds in those countries to the peak of the transmission of COVID-19,” Katie Smallwood, a WHO emergency official, told reporters.
“This gives us a very good indication that a very significant proportion of this excess deaths is linked and due to COVID-19,” she added.
