The number of novel coronavirus cases in the US surpassed 400,000 on Wednesday, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The pandemic has now claimed the lives of around 13,000 in the United States, which leads the world in the number of confirmed infections.

The US death toll is approaching those of hard-hit Italy with more than 17,000 and Spain with more than 14,500.
New York, the state most badly hit by the disease, reported a record 779 deaths, though its governor said the situation appeared to be stabilising.

The virus has now infected some 1.4 million people since late last year, killing more than 80,000 and forcing governments across the world to take radical measures.

Global trade growth is expected to plummet by up to a third in 2020 due to the pandemic, the World Trade Organisation said on Wednesday, warning that the downturn “may well be the deepest economic recession or downturn of our lifetimes”.
Here are the developments:

Boris Johnson’s condition ‘improving’ as UK deaths hit 7,000

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s condition is improving in hospital, where he has been in the critical care unit for two nights, as the country reported a record number of daily coronavirus deaths.

“The latest from the hospital is that the prime minister remains in intensive care where his condition is improving,” Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said in a televised press conference on Wednesday. “He’s been sitting up and engaging positively with the clinical team.”

Johnson was taken into St Thomas’ Hospital in London on Sunday and moved to the critical care unit on Monday after struggling to shake off virus symptoms, including a cough and a fever. He has been receiving standard treatment with oxygen and has not needed a ventilator, the premier’s spokesman James Slack earlier told reporters in London.

The national picture, however, is bleaker, with a record 938 people dying of the virus in the 24 hours to 5pm on Tuesday, bringing Britain’s toll to 7,097, the Department for Health said. Johnson put the country into lock down on March 23 and an extension is now likely when the restrictions are due for review on Monday, people familiar with the matter said.
While Johnson is “in good spirits,” he is not working, and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is now in charge of the government in all areas.

“He has the ability to contact those that he needs to,” Slack said. “He is following the advice of his doctors at all times.”

New York deaths rise, but curve ‘flattening’

New York recorded a new single-day high for coronavirus deaths on Wednesday but Governor Andrew Cuomo said the epidemic appeared to be stabilising.

Cuomo said 779 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll in New York state from Covid-19 to 6,268. The previous high of 731 was set on Monday.

New York is bearing the brunt of America’s deadly coronavirus pandemic, accounting for around half the number of deaths across the country.

The governor said that despite the rise, the hospitalisation rate was continuing to decrease because of social confinement orders.

“We are flattening the curve,” the governor told reporters.

He added that if the rate continues to go down the hospital system will stabilise over the next two weeks, which will “minimise” the need for temporary hospitals. Field hospitals have been set up in Central Park, at the home of the US tennis centre, in a convention centre and on a US navy ship to deal with the influx of patients.

Cuomo said the death toll was high because people put on ventilators when hospitalisation rates were high in previous weeks were now dying.