BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
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GENEVA -- The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) has exceeded 3 million worldwide, according to the latest statistics from the WHO on Wednesday.
The WHO COVID-19 dashboard updated at 11:00 pm CET showed that globally a total of 3,024,059 confirmed cases, including 208,112 deaths, have been reported to the organization.
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CAIRO -- Turkish Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca said on Wednesday that Turkey is at the peak point of the coronavirus outbreak, with 2,936 new cases reported, while the total infections in Iran reached 93,657 after 1,073 new cases were added in the past 24 hours.
"I can say that we are at the peak period, but we see a fall in the number of (new) cases," Koca stated at a press conference, noting a risk of a new wave is not foreseen if the current measures are followed.
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HELSINKI -- Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced on Wednesday schools will reopen on May 14, however, only pupils in the basic nine grades will return school. Secondary level classes will remain in distant teaching.
Schools were closed in Finland on March 18 to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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NEW YORK -- The number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States topped 60,000 on Wednesday afternoon, reaching 60,207 as of 4 p.m. (2000 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
A total of 1,030,487 cases have been reported in the country, according to the CSSE.
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MOSCOW -- Moscow regrets the attempts of several Western countries to put the blame on China for the coronavirus pandemic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.
"I would like to say that we are upset by the attempts to point a finger at a particular country. You mentioned that the U.S. is blaming China. In Europe, there are also accusations against China," Lavrov said in an interview with the TASS news agency.
"We all see it. This, of course, is sad," Lavrov said, adding that the priority now is to beat the coronavirus.
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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at the record-low level of near zero, as the COVID-19 fallout continues to ripple through the country.
"The ongoing public health crisis will weigh heavily on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term, and poses considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term," the Fed said in a statement after concluding a two-day policy meeting, adding the Fed's policy-making committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0-0.25 percent.
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MAPUTO -- Mozambique will extend the state of emergency for another 30 days until May 30 to contain the spreading of coronavirus, said President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday.
In his televised speech to the nation, President Nyusi said that during the first 30 days of the state of emergency, Mozambican people have played active roles in the prevention of and fight against the pandemic.
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