London (AFP)

The coronavirus pandemic has already killed more than 25,000 people around the world, including nearly 1,000 in Italy in 24 hours - a record that no country has reached so far -, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the first contaminated first world leader on Friday.

As an additional alarm signal, the head of the WHO considered that "the chronic global shortage of personal protective equipment" for healthcare workers posed an "imminent threat" in the fight against Covid-19.

In Italy, the total number of deaths now stands at 9,134, up 969 from Thursday. Contagion continues to slow, however, with an increase of just 7.4% in the total number of positive cases (86,498).

Already in the morning, the Higher Institute of Health (ISS) had warned that the peak of the pandemic was still not reached on the peninsula, but that it could be in the coming days.

After Italy, Spain has the most deaths (more than 4,850, including 662 in the past 24 hours), ahead of China (3,292 dead). The United States, with 1,201 deaths Thursday evening, was in sixth position behind Iran (2,378) and France (1,696).

"Everything we know is falling apart like a house of cards. So what we have to do is go up the castle, it will fall four or five times, but it will have to be rebuilt again", wants to believe Santiago de la Fuente, doctor at the hospital in Leganès, about ten kilometers from Madrid.

- "Just a cough" -

Nearly 550,000 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed worldwide since the end of December, more than half of them in Europe.

The pandemic is also progressing exponentially in the United States, the country most affected after Italy with more than 83,000 cases.

New proof that the virus is playing on social barriers, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Minister of Health Matt Hancock announced Friday that they had tested positive for the new coronavirus.

Boris Johnson presents according to his services only "mild symptoms" which do not prevent him from continuing to lead his country's response to the pandemic which threatens to overwhelm hospitals in the United Kingdom.

Before the 55-year-old conservative leader, only Prince Albert II of Monaco had been officially contaminated by Covid-19 among heads of state and government, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau placed in isolation after being in contact with persons tested positive.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe warned of "the extremely high wave" of the disease which "is sweeping over France". The government has decided to continue confining the population until April 15, with a possible extension.

"We will have to hold out," urged Mr. Philippe, while the epidemic has worsened in France with 365 deaths recorded Thursday in hospital in 24 hours, including that of a 16-year-old girl, the youngest French victim of the coronavirus, however reputed to mainly affect the elderly or vulnerable.

At the beginning "she just had a cough," her mother told AFP.

South Africa on Friday recorded its first two deaths, hours after entering confinement for three weeks. The most industrialized country in Africa is by far the most affected on the continent with 927 cases reported for 57 million inhabitants.

- "Allah will protect us" -

It is about "preventing a human catastrophe of enormous proportions," said President Cyril Ramaphosa.

"You are there to wage war on an invisible enemy. We expect you (...) to go out on the streets to defend our people against the virus," the head of state launched Thursday in military uniform. , to a detachment of soldiers ready to deploy to enforce containment.

In central Johannesburg, police whipped up crowded customers outside a supermarket.

For Ditebogo Koenaite, airline pilot, "the middle and upper classes will respect confinement". "But I do not think that the most modest can respect social distancing. It is harder in poor neighborhoods because they share the toilets" in particular, she noted.

In Singapore, the authorities are now threatening six months in prison for those who do not respect the safety distances between individuals.

But crowds were very high on Friday for Friday prayers in many mosques, in Pakistan, Afghanistan or Indonesia.

"Allah will protect Muslims from disasters caused by the coronavirus," said an imam in a packed mosque in Kabul.

- Three billion people confined -

The international community has also endeavored to mobilize astronomical sums to save the world economy.

To the rescue programs launched by several countries at the national level is added since Thursday that concocted by the leaders of the G20 gathered at the summit by videoconference under the presidency of Saudi Arabia. They promised to inject 5,000 billion dollars to support the global economy struck by the pandemic.

The new coronavirus has halted the activity of many sectors and forced three billion Earthlings to seal up at home.

Very worried about the acceleration of the coronavirus pandemic, especially in the United States, the stock markets again sank in red on Friday, ignoring the support provided by the states and central banks.

It is "clear" that the world economy has now entered a recession, announced on Friday IMF Managing Director Kristalina Goergieva.

burs-thm / cr

© 2020 AFP