ट्विटर पे अबतक का सबसे बड़ा साइबर हमला , बराक ओबामा , जेफ बेज़ोस , और एप्पल जैसे ब्लू ट्रिक वाले बड़े यूजर के अकाउंट हैक हुए |

सोशल मीडिया प्लेटफॉर्म ट्विटर पे अबतक का सबसे बड़ा साइबर अटैक हुआ है , जिसमें दर्जनों अकाउंट को हैकर्स ने निशाना बनाया , सभी अकाउंट पे लगभग एक तरह की पोस्ट हुई थी जिसमें बिटकॉइन से पैसे दोगुना करने की बात कही गई है , ट्विटर ने इस में कहा जल्द ही जांच होगी और सब पहले जैसे हो जाएगा
पूरा मामला 
दुनिया के दिग्गज नेताओं, सेलेब्रिटी, कारोबारी और कंपनियों के ट्विटर अकाउंट को हैक कर लिया गया. 15 जुलाई की रात को. जिन अकाउंट्स को निशाना बनाया गया उनमें माइक्रोसॉफ्ट के सह संस्थापक बिल गेट्स, टेस्ला के सीईओ एलन मस्क, अमेरिकी रैपर कान्ये वेस्ट, अमेरिका के पूर्व उपराष्ट्रपति जो बिडेन, अमेरिका के पूर्व राष्ट्रपति बराक ओबामा, इजरायल के प्रधानमंत्री बेंजामिन नेतन्याहू, वॉरेन बफेट, ऐपल, ऊबर समेत और कई ट्विटर अकाउंट थे.

टेस्ला के प्रमुख एलन मस्क के अकाउंट से किए गए ट्वीट में कहा गया कि अगले एक घंटे तक बिटकॉइन में भेजे गए पैसों को दोगुना करके वापस लौटाया जाएगा.

हैकरों ने  माइक्रोसॉफ्ट के सह संस्थापक बिल गेट्स के ट्विटर अकाउंट से ट्वीट किया, ‘हर कोई मुझसे समाज को वापस देने को कह रहा है और अब समय आ गया है. मैं अगले 30 मिनट तक बीटीसी एड्रेस पर भेज गए सभी पेमेंट को दोगुना कर रहा हूं. आप एक हजार डॉलर भेजिए और मैं आपको दो हजार डॉलर वापस भेजूंगा.’ ऐपल के अकाउंट से भी इसी तरह का ट्वीट किया गया

फिलहाल अभी तक पता नहीं चल पाया किसने ऐसा किया है .

US COVID-19 cases top 1.1 million; death toll reaches 64,789

The United States reported more than 1.1 million cases of novel coronavirus, with the death toll exceeding 64,700. The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country reached 1,100,197, and a total of 64,789 deaths related to the disease were recorded as of 7.40 p.m. (Friday), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University, Xinhua news agency reported.

New York remains the hardest-hit state, with 308,314 cases and 24,039 deaths, followed by New Jersey with 121,190 cases and 7,538 deaths. Other states with over 50,000 cases include Massachusetts, Illinois, and California, according to the CSSE

Coronavirus worldwide cases have crossed 3.4 million mark taking confirmed cases to 34,00,674 including 2,39,586 deaths and 10,81,590 recovered patients. 

Spain is the next major outbreak centre for coronavirus with 2,42,988 cases including 24,824 deaths becoming the second most affected nation that has been hit by COVID-19. Meanwhile, Italy has so far recorded 207,428 cases while UK toll surges to 177,454. France at present has 167,346 confirmed coronavirus cases. 

Coronavirus vaccine development can take upto two years, says Bill Gates

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, whose foundation is focusing its efforts to fight the coronavirus, explained on Thursday that life will return to normal only when there’s a viable vaccine that can stop its spread. However, the development of vaccine may take as little as 9 months or as long as two years.

“Dr. Anthony Fauci has said he thinks it’ll take around eighteen months to develop a coronavirus vaccine," Gates wrote in a blog post published Thursday. “I agree with him, though it could be as little as 9 months or as long as two years."

Even if it takes 18 months, that would still be the fastest that scientists have created a new vaccine, Gates said, adding that he’s thinks eight to ten of the 115 current COVID-19 vaccine candidates look promising.

“I’m particularly excited by two new approaches that some of the candidates are taking: RNA and DNA vaccines," he wrote. “It might be a bit hard to see right now, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel."

Here are some key quotes from the blog:

• “For COVID-19, financing development is not an issue. Governments and other organizations (including our foundation and an amazing alliance called the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) have made it clear they will support whatever it takes to find a vaccine."
• “Compressing the trial timeline isn’t the only way to take a process that usually takes five years and get it done in 18 months. Another way we’re going to do that is by testing lots of different approaches at the same time."
• “Since we might not have time to do multi-year studies, we will have to conduct robust phase 1 safety trials and make sure we have good real-world evidence that the vaccine is completely safe to use."
• “I suspect a vaccine that is at least 70 percent effective will be enough to stop the outbreak. A 60 percent effective vaccine is useable, but we might still see some localized outbreaks."
• “What we can do now is build different kinds of vaccine factories to prepare. Each vaccine type requires a different kind of factory. We need to be ready with facilities that can make each type, so that we can start manufacturing the final vaccine (or vaccines) as soon as we can."
• “We’re doing the right things to get a vaccine as quickly as possible. In the meantime, I urge you to continue following the guidelines set by your local authorities. Our ability to get through this outbreak will depend on everyone doing their part to keep each other safe."

Kim Jong Un’s train possibly spotted in North Korean resort town, says U.S.-based think tank

This comes amid conflicting reports about the North Korean leader’s health and whereabouts.

A special train possibly belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was spotted this week at a resort town in the country, according to satellite images reviewed by a Washington-based North Korea monitoring project, amid conflicting reports about Mr. Kim's health and whereabouts.

The monitoring project, 38 North, said in its report on Saturday that the train was parked at the “leadership station” in Wonsan on April 21 and April 23. The station is reserved for the use of the Kim family, it said.

Though the group said it was probably Kim Jong Un's train, Reuters has not been able to confirm that independently, or whether he was in Wonsan.


“The train's presence does not prove the whereabouts of the North Korean leader or indicate anything about his health but it does lend weight to reports that Kim is staying at an elite area on the country's eastern coast,” the report said.


Speculation about Mr. Kim's health first arose due to his absence from the anniversary of the birthday of North Korea's founding father and Mr. Kim's grandfather, Kim Il Sung, on April 15.

North Korea's state media last reported on Mr. Kim's whereabouts when he presided over a meeting on April 11.

China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation.

A third-generation hereditary leader who came to power after his father's death in 2011, Kim has no clear successor in a nuclear-armed country, which could present major international risk.

On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump downplayed reports that Mr. Kim was ill. “I think the report was incorrect,” Mr. Trump told reporters, but he declined to say if he had been in touch with North Korean officials.

Mr. Trump has met Mr. Kim three times in an attempt to persuade him to give up a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States as well as its Asian neighbors. While talks have stalled, Mr. Trump has continued to hail Mr. Kim as a friend.

Reports and controls
Reporting from inside North Korea is notoriously difficult because of tight controls on information.

A Trump administration official said continuing days of North Korean media silence on Mr. Kim's whereabouts had heightened concerns about his condition, and that information remained scant from a country U.S. intelligence has long regarded as a ”black box.”

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to questions about the situation on Saturday.

Daily NK, a Seoul-based website that reports on North Korea, cited one unnamed source in North Korea on Monday as saying that Kim had undergone medical treatment in the resort county of Hyangsan north of the capital Pyongyang.

It said that Mr. Kim was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure on April 12.

Since then, multiple South Korean media reports have cited unnamed sources this week saying that Mr. Kim might be staying in the Wonsan area.

On Friday, local news agency Newsis cited South Korean intelligence sources as reporting that a special train for Mr. Kim's use had been seen in Wonsan, while Mr. Kim's private plane remained in Pyongyang.

Newsis reported Mr. Kim may be sheltering from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Mr. Kim, believed to be 36, has disappeared from coverage in North Korean state media before. In 2014, he vanished for more than a month and North Korean state TV later showed him walking with a limp.

Speculation about his health has been fanned by his heavy smoking, apparent weight gain since taking power and family history of cardiovascular problems.

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Make No Mistake, Virus Will Be With Us For Long Time: World Health Organisation

Geneva, Switzerland: 

COVID-19 will stalk the planet for a long time to come, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, warning that most countries were still in the early stages of tackling the pandemic.

WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said some countries that thought they had the new coronavirus under control were witnessing a resurgence in cases, while there were troubling upward trends in Africa and the Americas.

He also insisted that the UN health agency had declared a global emergency in good time on January 30 for countries to prepare and plan their response.

The body has been heavily criticised by the United States for its handling of the pandemic but Tedros brushed off calls for him to resign.

"Most of the epidemics in western Europe appear to be stable or declining," Tedros told a virtual press conference in Geneva.

"Although numbers are low, we see worrying upward trends in Africa, Central and South America, and eastern Europe."

"Most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics. And some that were affected early in the pandemic are now starting to see a resurgence in cases.

"Make no mistake: we have a long way to go. This virus will be with us for a long time."

The global death count has passed 175,000, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP, while more than 2.5 million declared cases have been registered since the epidemic first emerged in China in December.

Tedros was pressed on whether the WHO had acted swiftly enough.

"Looking back, I think we declared the emergency at the right time" on January 30, he said, adding that the world "had enough time to respond".

Japan panel warns of mega-earthquake and tsunami waves over 30-meter high. Details here

Japan Tsunami Warning Latest: A Japanese government panel on Tuesday warned of a massive tsunami and mega earthquake. The group of experts warned of mega-earthquake centred around the Japan Trench and the Kuril Trench off northern parts of Japan calling it “imminent." According to the report by the scientists and experts, tsunami waves as high as 30 metres could be triggered if an earthquake of magnitude 9 occurs along the sea trenches of the pacific coast, the Japan Times reported. 

Earlier on Saturday (April 18) a strong earthquake shook a Japanese island chain in the Pacific Ocean south of Tokyo but passed off without damage as it occurred in the Pacific Ocean west of the Ogasawara island chain, at a location about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of Tokyo, as per the Japan Meteorological Agency. 

Japan Trench which is in the centre of this mega-quake and tsunami warning, is an oceanic trench part of the Pacific Ring of Fire off northeast Japan. It extends from the Kuril Islands to the northern end of the Izu Islands and is 8,046 metres (26,398 ft) at its deepest. It links the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench to the north and the Izu-Ogasawara Trench to its south with a length of 800 kilometres (500 mi). 

A continuing movement on the subduction zone of the Japan Trench is one of the main causes of tsunamis and earthquakes in the region, including tsunami that occurred on 11 March 2011. The 2011 tsunami in Japan had killed more than 15,000 people.

“A massive earthquake of this class would be difficult to deal with by developing hard infrastructure (such as coast levees). To save people’s lives, the basic policy would be an evacuation,” Seismologist Kenji Satake, a University of Tokyo professor and head of the panel, was quoted as saying by the Japan Times. 

As per the panel’s estimate, an earthquake along the Chishima Trench could have a magnitude of 9.3. The off-shore earthquake can jolt parts of eastern Hokkaido with an intensity of 6 to 7 magnitude on the Japanese scale of zero to seven, the report said. 

According to the report, waves nearly 90 feet high could reach the town of Erimo. 

As per the Japan Times, the area around Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant could be submerged. The plant was hit by the 2011 tsunami as well.

Chinese Writer Of "Wuhan Diary" Faces Backlash, Alleges Death Threats

Beijing, China: 

After Wuhan was sealed off from the world, acclaimed Chinese writer Fang Fang started an online diary about the coronavirus tragedy unfolding in her hometown.

Her journal drew tens of millions of readers -- but now that it is about to be published abroad in several languages, she is facing a nationalist backlash at home.

Critics say the 64-year-old, who was awarded China's most prestigious literary prize in 2010, is providing fodder to countries that have slammed Beijing's handling of the pandemic.

Fang began to document life in Wuhan, the city of 11 million where COVID-19 first emerged in December, after it was placed under an unprecedented lockdown on January 23.

As authorities desperately scrambled to stop the disease from spreading across the country, she wrote about the fears, anger and hope of the industrial hub's residents in isolation.

In one entry she mentioned seeing pictures of the city's empty East Lake, and the "deserted and peaceful expanse of the water".

She described residents helping each other, and the simple pleasure of the sun lighting up her room.

But she also touched on politically sensitive topics such as overcrowded hospitals turning away patients, mask shortages and relatives' deaths.

"A doctor friend said to me: in fact, we doctors have all known for a while that there is a human-to-human transmission of the disease, we reported this to our superiors, but yet nobody warned people," she wrote in one entry.

Born to a family of well-off intellectuals, the writer's real name is Wang Fang but she uses the pen name Fang Fang.

Death threats 

Readers flocked to the online diary to get an unfiltered account from Wuhan in a Communist-ruled country that lacks independent media.

But some social media users have turned on the author -- especially as a new diplomatic spat has erupted between China and the US, which accuses Beijing of a lack of transparency in the outbreak's early days, costing the world valuable time.

"Bravo Fang Fang. You're giving Western countries ammunition to target China," said one post about her on the country's Twitter-like Weibo platform.

"You've shown your treacherous nature," it said.

Another accused Fang of making money off Wuhan's nearly 4,000 virus victims, writing: "How much did you sell the diary for?"

Hit by a barrage of online insults, Fang wrote on Weibo that she was the victim of "cyberbullying" by fringe nationalists.

And in an interview posted on the website of Chinese weekly Caixin, the author said she had received death threats and that her home address was posted online.

The way US publisher HarperCollins introduces the book -- which goes on sale in June and is succinctly titled "Wuhan Diary" -- has added fuel to the online fury.

"The stark reality of this devastating situation drives Fang Fang to courageously speak out against social injustice, corruption, abuse, and the systemic political problems which impeded the response to the epidemic," the publishing house says on its website.

The book, it says, blends "the eerie and dystopian" and provides "a unique look at life in confinement in an authoritarian nation".

French publisher Stock told AFP the book is a "first-hand testimony by a talented writer".

Donating royalties 

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of nationalist tabloid Global Times, said the diary's foreign publication "is not really in good taste" while Beijing is in the throes of confrontation with Washington.

"In the end it will be the Chinese, including those who supported Fang Fang at the beginning, who will pay the price of her fame in the West," Hu said in a social-media comment that drew more than 190,000 likes.

An article in the state-run newspaper said that to many Chinese people, the book is "biased and only exposes the dark side in Wuhan".

Publishers in China who were interested in her diary are now hesitating due to the controversy, Fang said in the interview on Caixin's website.

Politically sensitive content is often censored or banned in mainland China.

In 2015 five booksellers in Hong Kong, where the mini-constitution guarantees freedom of expression, disappeared into mainland custody after publishing salacious tomes about China's leaders.

"Why not publish this book? Just because some could use us?" Fang said.

"If people truly read my diary, they will discover the effective measures that China took against the epidemic."

Fang said she would donate "every royalty" she receives and "will give the money to the families of health workers who worked in the frontline and died".

Loyal fans of the author have rallied around her on Weibo.

"Fang Fang owes nothing to anyone," wrote one.

"You're free to write a diary that goes against what she wrote, translate it and publish it abroad!"

At Least 16 Killed In Overnight Shooting Rampage In Canada, Gunman Killed

Montreal, Canada: 

A gunman who drove a mock-up police car killed at least 16 people in an Atlantic Canada shooting rampage, federal police said Sunday, the worst case of its kind in Canadian history.

The shooter, identified as Gabriel Wortman, 51, was shot dead by officers after a 12-hour manhunt in Nova Scotia province ended Sunday morning.

Among the victims was a veteran female constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which also handles municipal and provincial law enforcement in the province.

Police said the suspect had been on the run since Saturday night, when officers were alerted to shots fired in the town of Portapique, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Halifax.

Gun violence in Canada is far less frequent than in the neighboring United States, and weapons more strictly controlled, but the killings were the country's worst ever, exceeding the toll in 1989 when a gunman murdered 14 female students at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique.

Public broadcaster CBC quoted RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki as saying police know of at least 16 victims, besides the shooter.

"What has unfolded overnight and into this morning is incomprehensible and many families are experiencing the loss of a loved one," Nova Scotia RCMP Commanding Officer, Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman, wrote on the force's local Facebook page.

"That includes our own RCMP family. It is with tremendous sadness that I share with you that we lost Constable Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the Force who was killed this morning, while responding to an active shooter incident."

In addition to Stevenson, a mother of two, a male officer was injured and is in hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Bergerman said.

The National Post newspaper said another victim was an elementary school teacher, citing a Facebook post from the woman's sister.

Several victims were discovered both outside and inside a house in Portapique, sparking the manhunt through multiple communities, police said.

"The search for the suspect ended this morning when the suspect was located. And I can confirm that he is deceased," RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather told a press conference.

Leather said that at one point, the suspect appeared to be wearing part of a police uniform and was driving a vehicle made to look like an RCMP cruiser.

Fires burned

RCMP tweeted several times that he was not an officer and warned he was considered "armed and dangerous."

"The initial search for the suspect led to multiple sites in the area, including structures that were on fire," Leather told the news conference.

Another police spokesperson said, without further details, that the gunman was killed after an officer intervened.

An independent agency, the Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT), which probes certain incidents involving the province's police, said that it "is investigating the shooting of a male in Enfield by RCMP officers."

SiRT said in a statement that a confrontation had occurred in Enfield, which is near the Halifax airport, "resulting in officers discharging their firearms. The suspect was found to be deceased at the scene."

Police said they had no indication of a motive. Lucki told CBC there was no indication "at this point" of a terrorist intent.

"What I would say is that it appears to be at least in part, very random in nature," said Leather.

"We are in the early stages of an incredibly detailed and complex investigation that has forever changed countless lives," he said. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement that he "was saddened to learn about the senseless violence in Nova Scotia," and he hopes for a full recovery of the wounded.

The National Post quoted Tom Taggart, a councillor who represents Portapique in the Municipality of Colchester, as saying the community was devastated.

He described the community as a "subdivision in the woods where people have acre lots along the shore," and where Wortman owned three properties.

"It's absolutely unbelievable this could happen in our community. I never dreamt this would happen here," Taggart said.

"You Know It, I Know It": Trump Says China COVID-19 Deaths Way Ahead Of US

Washington: 

President Donald Trump has expressed his doubts over the official Chinese figures on the number of deaths in their country due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, claiming that the fatalities were way ahead of the US.

Trump's comments come two days after another 1,300 fatalities were added to the official count in the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak started. The revision puts China''s overall death toll to more than 4,600.

"We are not number one; China is number one just so you understand," Trump told reporters at a White House news conference on Saturday. "They are way ahead of us in terms of death. It''s not even close."

According to Trump, when highly-developed healthcare systems of the UK, France, Belgium, Italy and Spain had high fatality rates, it was O.33 in China.

The president asserted that the actual number was much more than the official Chinese death toll figures, which he said were "unrealistic".

"You know it, I know it and they know it, but you don''t want to report it. Why?" he asked. "You will have to explain that. Someday I will explain it."

He also highlighted that on a per-capita basis, the mortality rate in the US was far lower than other nations of Western Europe.

Donald Trump warns China of consequences if found responsible for COVID-19 pandemic

US President Donald Trump has warned China of consequences if it was "knowingly responsible" for the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Trump, who has expressed his disappointment over the handling of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) by China, alleged non-transparency and initial non-cooperation with the US on this issue.

"If they were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences," he told reporters at a White House news conference on Saturday. "You're talking about, you know, potentially lives like nobody's seen since 1917."

Trump said his relationship with China was very good till the time the deadly COVID-19 swept the world.

"The relationship was good when we were signing that, but then, all of a sudden, you hear about this. So, it's a big difference.

"You know, the question was asked would you be angry at China. Well, the answer very well might be a very resounding yes, but it depends," Trump said.

The president underlined that there was a big difference between a mistake that got out of control or something done deliberately.

"In either event, they should have let us go in. You know, we asked to go in very early and they didn't want us in. I think they knew it was something bad and I think they were embarrassed," Trump said.

He claimed that China was pitching for former vice president Joe Biden, who is the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for the presidential election.

"If sleepy Joe Biden wins, China will own the United States," Trump said, adding that his administration had gained billions of dollars from China due to his assertive trade policies.

The president said the coronavirus crisis had hurt everybody.

"We had the greatest economy in the world by far. China isn't even close. Go back two months. And we're going to keep it that way," he said.

Trump asserted that Iran was now a much different country than it was before.

"When I first came in, Iran was going to take over the entire Middle East," he said. "Right now, they just want to survive."

Trump Announces $19 Billion Relief For Farmers Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

Washington, United States: 

President Donald Trump on Friday announced a $19 billion financial rescue package to help the agriculture industry weather the staggering economic downturn sparked by measures to defeat the coronavirus.

Trump told a press conference the government "will be implementing a $19 billion relief program for our great farmers and ranchers as they cope with the fallout of the global pandemic."

The program will include direct payments to farmers, ranchers and producers who Trump said have experienced "unprecedented losses during this pandemic."

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said US farmers have been hit hard by a sharp shift in demand, as schools and restaurants close and more Americans eat at home.

That has disrupted the food supply chain, forcing farmers in many places to destroy dairy output and plow under crops that no longer have buyers.

"Having to dump milk and plow under vegetables ready to market is not only financially distressing, but it's heartbreaking as well to those who produce them," Perdue said.

Perdue said some $3 billion of the money would go to buying produce and milk from such farmers, and redistribute it to community food banks. 

Millions of Americans have recently turned to food pantries for meals and groceries after losing their jobs.

The US farm and food industry has been hit in numerous ways by the coronavirus epidemic. 

Farmers are having trouble finding seasonal laborers to prepare and harvest crops; some meatpacking plants have been hit hard by COVID-19 outbreaks.

But the change in the way consumers eat has had a huge impact.

"Shuttered schools, universities, restaurants, bars and cafeterias are no longer buying milk, meat, fruits, vegetables and other food, causing a downward spiral in crop and livestock prices," the American Farm Bureau said recently.

Perdue praised farmers, who have enjoyed billions of dollars in support payments over the past two years due to the impact of Trump's trade war with China, as "heroic."

"Our farmers have been in the fields planting and doing what they do every spring to feed the American people, even with a pandemic, as we speak."

"All Countries Will Face This": WHO After China Revises COVID-19 Deaths

Geneva, Switzerland: 

The World Health Organization said Friday that many countries would likely follow China in revising up their death counts once they start getting the coronavirus crisis under control.

Wuhan, the COVID-19 epicentre, admitted missteps in tallying its death toll, abruptly raising the city's count by 50 percent -- following growing world doubts about Chinese transparency over the outbreak.

The WHO said Wuhan had been overwhelmed by the virus, which emerged in the city in December, and the authorities had been too swamped to ensure every death and infection was properly recorded.

Authorities in Wuhan initially tried to cover up the outbreak, punishing doctors who had raised the alarm online, and there have been questions about the government's recording of infections as it repeatedly changed its counting criteria at the peak of the crisis.

"This is something that is a challenge in an ongoing outbreak: to identify all of your cases and all of your deaths," Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO's COVID-19 technical lead, told a virtual press conference in Geneva.

"I would anticipate that many countries are going to be in a similar situation where they will have to go back and review records and look to see: did we capture all of them?"

She said the Wuhan authorities had now reviewed their databases and cross-checked for discrepancies.

Wuhan added 1,290 deaths to its number of deaths, raising the total to 3,869, and added a further 325 cases, bringing the number of infections to 50,333.

Van Kerkhove said that because Wuhan's healthcare system was swamped, some patients died at home; others were in makeshift facilities; and that medics, focused on treating patients, therefore did not do the paperwork on time.

Michael Ryan, the WHO's emergencies director, added: "All countries will face this".

But he urged nations to produce precise data as early as possible, "because that keeps us on top of what the impact is, and allows us to project forward in a much more accurate way."

Africa hope

More than two million people have been infected with COVID-19, while, according to an AFP tally, more than 145,000 have lost their lives.

Most of the cases and deaths reported so far have been in Europe and the United States.

But WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of a "worrying trend" emerging in Africa.

At the WHO's last daily count, there had been 11,843 confirmed cases and 550 deaths on the continent.

"In the past week there has been a 51 percent increase in the number of reported cases in my own continent, Africa, and a 60 percent increase in the number of reported deaths," the former Ethiopian health minister said.

But his colleagues said the situation was not beyond control on the continent, given Africa's long experience of having to battle fatal disease outbreaks.

"We don't believe, at this point, the disease has passed the capacity to be contained," said Ryan.

Wet markets

So-called wet markets in China have been in the spotlight since the virus emerged, with some blaming them as the source of COVID-19.

Wet markets are popular venues to buy fresh meat, vegetables and fish across Asia -- most selling common, everyday produce to locals at affordable prices, with some selling live animals, and sometimes wildlife.

Tedros said they were an important source of food and work for millions, but they were too often poorly regulated and maintained.

"WHO's position is that when these markets are allowed to reopen, it should only be on the condition that they conform to stringent food safety and hygiene standards," he said.

"Governments must rigorously enforce bans on the sale and trade of wildlife for food."

An estimated 70 percent of all new viruses in humans come from other species, he added.

Coronavirus cases reach 2.18 million, death toll closing in on 1.5 lakh

The coronavirus cases worldwide have reached 2,182,025 as the UK became the 6th country in the world to rack up 1 lakh cases. The global death toll is closing in on 150,000. In the last 24 hours, over 34,000 new coronavirus cases have been reported from the United States of America while the country has also seen 2,174 deaths. Total cases in the US have now risen to 677,570, while the death toll notched up to 34,617. 

UK has now become the 6th country worldwide and 5th in Europe to cross the 100,000-mark as the island nation saw over 4,600 cases in the last 24 hours along with 861 new deaths. Other European countries including Spain, Italy, France and Germany continued to rack up cases as cases in the continent surpassed 1 million while the death toll neared 100,000. 

10 worst impacted countries

Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths	New Deaths
USA	677,570	+29,567	34,617	+2,174
Spain	184,948	+4,289	19,315	+503
Italy	168,941	+3,786	22,170	+525
France	165,027	+17,164	17,920	+753
Germany	137,698	+2,945	4,052	+248
UK	103,093	+4,617	13,729	+861
China	82,341	+46	3,342
Iran	77,995	+1,606	4,869	+92
Turkey	74,193	+4,801	1,643	+125
Belgium	34,809	+1,236	4,857	+417

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 22,170 lives in locked-down Italy, bringing the total number of cases, including fatalities and recoveries, so far to 168,941, according to the latest data released by the country's Civil Protection Department.

Speaking during a televised press conference, Civil Protection Department Chief Angelo Borrelli on Thursday confirmed that there were 1,189 new active coronavirus infections compared to Wednesday, bringing the nationwide total to 106,607, Xinhua reported.

Of those infected, 26,893 or 25 per cent of the total, are hospitalised -- down by 750 compared to Wednesday, and 2,936 patients, or 2.75 per cent, are in intensive care -- down by 143.

"This is the lowest number of patients in intensive care since March 22," said Borrelli.

The rest, or 72 per cent of all positive cases, are quarantined at home, Borrelli said, adding that a total of 61,000 swabs have been carried out over the past 24 hours.