Brussels (AFP)
Approaching the symbolic bar of 100,000 coronavirus deaths, the international community is seeking economic and diplomatic responses to the pandemic, which threatens a world largely confined to a global recession.
More than 94,000 people have succumbed to the pandemic which, according to the patron of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, will have "the worst economic consequences since the Great Depression" of 1929.
Some encouraging figures in Europe and the United States give hope for an imminent slowdown in the increase in this macabre count. For the first time, the number of intensive care patients fell slightly in France, and the situation has stabilized in several American epidemic outbreaks of Covid-19.
Containment measures, which now concern more than half of humanity, have an enormous cost. Whole sectors of the economy are paralyzed, trade plummets, unemployment soars.
In this "anxiety-provoking" period, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres stressed on Thursday that "a signal of unity and determination" from the Security Council, divided for weeks, "would count a lot" to mitigate the implications for the peace of the pandemic, claiming that it was "the fight of a generation".
But the 15 members of the Council, assembled by videoconference during the night of Thursday to Friday for a first session devoted to Covid-19, were limited to bringing their "support" to the head of the UN.
- Snatch agreement -
The American administration has indeed renewed Thursday its charges against the World Health Organization (WHO), a UN agency, accusing him of having "privileged the policy to the public health". For Washington, the lack of transparency in China, where the new coronavirus appeared in December, has also cost the world "precious time".
On the economic side, in Europe, the finance ministers managed to find a snatch deal on Thursday including 500 billion euros available immediately and a stimulus fund to come. Paris welcomed an "excellent agreement", Berlin "a great day for European solidarity" and the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, "an innovative agreement".
They did not settle the burning question of the mutualisation of the debt, the "coronabonds" intended to support the economy in the long term, which divides the countries of north and south of the EU.
The oil powers, for their part, were trying on Friday to finalize a production cut deal to support oil prices, which plummeted with the pandemic.
In the United States, the Central Bank struck a blow by announcing $ 2.3 trillion in new loans to support the economy. This could rebound fairly quickly, according to the monetary authorities. And France has doubled its emergency plan, to 100 billion euros.
- "Food crisis" -
In the rest of the world, the majority of countries do not have American or European means. For the first time in more than a quarter of a century, particularly exposed sub-Saharan Africa is expected to enter recession in 2020, warned the World Bank, which also fears a "food crisis" on the continent.
Despite the difficulties this imposes on many, South Africa, the continent's economic giant, has extended the call to stay cloistered at home for two weeks.
In Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, containment is already disrupting agricultural production circuits. After only a week, in each street, each district of Lagos, the economic lung of the country, we hear the same litany: "We are hungry".
In India too, the poorest are struggling to survive. "Last night we had rotis (traditional Indian bread, ed) with salt mixed in mustard oil," says Rajni Devi, a mother from the outskirts of New Delhi, who says she is falling asleep. crying every night. "It is better to die than to be hungry like that."
- "Flatten the curve" -
Although the planet is walled up, the virus continues to spread and the world is fast approaching the 100,000 death mark.
With more than 18,000 deaths, Italy is still the country with the most victims in the world. The United States now occupies second place in this sinister classification with 16,478 dead, followed by Spain (more than 15,000) and France (more than 12,000).
Epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, New York State deplored nearly 800 deaths in 24 hours, its worst record in a day. But the number of hospitalizations has never been so low since the beginning of the crisis, noted its governor Andrew Cuomo, which made him say: "We are flattening the curve".
Spain, Italy and France also note a downward trend in hospital pressure. Health authorities everywhere are calling for continued efforts.
In Britain, an additional 881 deaths were recorded in 24 hours. A breath of fresh air: Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a carrier of the virus, was able to get out of intensive care.
In Iran, the 4,000 dead mark has been crossed but, according to the authorities, the latest figures show "clearly a drop in the number of new cases of contamination".
Healthcare workers in all countries continue to pay a heavy price for the pandemic: in Italy, a hundred doctors as well as around thirty nurses and nursing assistants have died. In the UK, a doctor who sounded the alarm about the lack of protective equipment for carers died from the virus.
- Drive-in confessions -
Funeral directors, also on the warpath, regret that their work is less valued. "We have a strong feeling of abandonment. The caregivers have a kind of recognition. For the masks and the suits, we managed on our own. The authorities did not think of us", notes Jean-Christophe Saels, undertaker in Brussels.
Hundreds of millions of confined Christians are preparing to celebrate Easter in unprecedented conditions.
It is without the presence of the faithful that Pope Francis will celebrate the Last Supper Mass, without the traditional washing of the feet, the highlight of the liturgical year.
Catholic priests from Acapulco, a famous seaside resort in Mexico, proposed this Holy Thursday to the faithful to confess without getting out of their car.
And in Bosnia, at the Marian sanctuary of Medjugorje, a veritable anthill before Easter, during Holy Week, the panels intimate "silence" for absent pilgrims.
burs-chp / iba / am / hh
© 2020 AFP