Three billion people under lockdown as Coronavirus continue to spread

20,000 deaths and nearly half million infected patients

Many of us have seen the horrifying Hollywood science fiction movies on epidemics and biological war fare.  We have seen ghost towns and cities in these movies. It was considered as the imagination of Bollywood writers and producers. But what is happening right now around the world is not a fiction but reality.

Coronavirus epidemic has already taken more than 20,000 lives globally. The people infected with this epidemic so far has reached nearly half a million (0.5 million). Three billion people around the world are now living under lockdown or similar conditions.

The lockdowns in different countries have turned many bustling cities into ghost towns and cities. There is no vaccine available to cure this deadly virus. So lockdown-quarantine and social isolation is the only way to contain the spread.     

 India has ordered its 1,3 billion  people to stay at homes to observe the lockdown is now the biggest, taking the total number of individuals facing restrictions on their daily lives to more than three billion. Meanwhile, more than half of all Americans have been told to stay at home, including residents of the largest state, California. The United States has at least 65,700 cases and 942 people have died.

The governments around the world have stepped up their efforts to curb the spread of deadly coronavirus. President Vladimir Putin declared next week a public holiday and postponed a public vote on controversial constitutional reforms, urging people to follow instructions given by authorities.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that only a concerted global effort could stop the spread of the virus. "COVID-19 is threatening the whole of humanity -- and the whole of humanity must fight back," Guterres said, launching an appeal for $2 billion to help the world's poor. Global action and solidarity are crucial," he said. "Individual country responses are not going to be enough."

According to French news agency AFP -in Spain, the number of fatalities surpassed those of China, where the novel coronavirus first emerged three months ago, making it the hardest-hit nation after Italy. Spain saw the number of deaths surge to more than 3,400 after 738 people died in the past 24 hours and the government announced a 432-million-euro ($467 million) deal to buy medical supplies from Beijing.

The death toll in Italy jumped in 24 hours by 683 to 7,503 -- by far the highest of any country. The number of French deaths was up by 231 on Wednesday to more than 1,330, and metro and rail services in Paris were cut to a minimum.

The economic damage of the virus -- and the lockdowns -- could also be devastating, with fears of a worldwide recession worse than the financial meltdown more than a decade ago.

                                                        The editor