Britain’s coronavirus death toll reaches 14,500

LONDON — The U.K. has recorded another 847 coronavirus deaths in hospitals, raising the overall total to 14,576.

The increase is slightly down on the 861 released on Thursday. Last week, a daily high reached 980 deaths.

The figure, which is released daily by the government, has come under increasing scrutiny. It likely underestimates the true toll because it only includes deaths in hospitals and not in nursing homes or other settings within the community.

Britain’s Office for National Statistics has indicated the figure could be around 15% higher, though others think it will be more amid growing reports of a sharp increase in coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes.

China’s virus death toll revised up sharply

BEIJING — The central Chinese city of Wuhan has raised its number of COVID-19 fatalities by 1,290, with state media saying Friday the undercount had been due to the insufficient admission capabilities at overwhelmed medical facilities at the peak of the outbreak.

Wuhan’s revised death toll of 3,869 is the most in China. Numbers of total cases in the city of 11 million were also raised by 325 to 50,333, accounting for about two-thirds of China’s total 82,367 announced cases.

Questions have long swirled around the accuracy of China’s case reporting, with Wuhan in particular going several days in January without reporting new cases or deaths. That has led to accusations that Chinese officials were seeking to minimize the impact of the outbreak and wasting opportunities to bring it under control in a shorter time.

Africa could see 300K coronavirus deaths

JOHANNESBURG — Africa could see 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus this year even under the best-case scenario, according to a new report released Friday that cites modeling from Imperial College London.

Under the worst-case scenario with no interventions against the virus, Africa could see 3.3 million deaths and 1.2 billion infections, the report by the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa said.

Even with “intense social distancing.” under the best-case scenario the continent could see more than 122 million infections, the report said.

Any of the scenarios would overwhelm Africa’s largely fragile and underfunded health systems, experts have warned. Under the best-case scenario, $44 billion would be needed for testing, personal protective equipment and treatment, the report said, citing UNECA estimates. The worst-case scenario would cost $446 billion.

IMF gives Pakistan emergency financing

ISLAMABAD — The International Monetary Fund has given Pakistan $1.5 billion in emergency financing to help absorb some of the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pakistan is spending billions in relief to mitigate the effect on its poorest citizens. The government has been handing out 12,000 rupees (roughly $70) to more than 10 million families hit hardest by a monthlong lockdown designed to try to slow a steadily climbing infection rate.

Pakistan has started ramping up testing, with more than 6,000 tests conducted in the last 24 hours — twice the 3,000 that had been carried out daily for much of the past month. The country has 7,025 confirmed COVID-19 cases including 135 deaths, an increase of 11 in the last 24 hours.

42 arrested for hoarding cloth

BEIJING — Chinese police have arrested 42 people for hoarding and driving up the price of the cloth material used to make face masks, as well as illegally producing shoddy and inferior material for resale.

The Ministry of Public Security said in a statement Friday that a nationwide task force had been formed to crack down on crimes related to the production of masks, which almost all Chinese wear when in public and many in their offices and even homes as a safeguard against coronavirus.

That has led to scarcities in many places and severe price increases, especially in online sales. The ministry statement said raids in the southern industrial hub of Guangdong and three other provinces in early and mid-March resulted in the breaking of 20 cases and the seizure of material worth more than 34 million yuan (almost $5 million).

China has become a major exporter of masks and the raw material for making them, and sought to tighten quality standards following complaints from some countries about inferior products.

Children ‘in jeopardy,’ UN warns

UNITED NATIONS — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that the coronavirus pandemic is putting many of the world’s children “in jeopardy” and is urging families everywhere and leaders at all levels to “protect our children.”

The U.N. chief said in a video statement Thursday that the lives of children “are being totally upended” by COVID-19, with almost all students out of school, family stress levels rising as communities face lockdowns, and reduced household income expected to force poor families to cut back on essential health and food expenditures, “particularly affecting children.”

Guterres said “children have so far been largely spared from the most severe symptoms of the disease.”

But with a global recession gathering pace, he said, “there could be hundreds of thousands additional child deaths in 2020.”

That estimate came from a 2011 paper by three economists who investigated the impact of “income shocks” on infant mortality, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said.

The secretary-general launched a report on risks children face which said 188 countries have imposed countrywide school closures, affecting more than 1.5 billion children and young people. It also said nearly 369 million children in 143 countries who rely on school meals for daily nutrition must now look to other sources.