Daily COVID-19 pandemic roundup: March 30

(Update, adds information from the WHO, the US, the UK, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia and Peru)

Miami Desk, Mar 30 (efe-epa).- Here is a roundup of stories around the world related to the coronavirus pandemic:

WHO: The World Health Organization on Monday reported 66,000 new coronavirus cases confirmed within the past 24 hours, bringing the worldwide total to 693,224, of whom 33,106 patients have died, an increase of about 3,000 over the day before. The pandemic has now spread to 200 countries around the world.

US: The CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, will give up his salary starting in April to reduce the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the company, which has closed its theme parks, cancelled movie screenings and paused almost all its film production projects. Iger, who took the firm’s helm in February, earned a base salary of $3 million in 2019, along with some $42 million in bonds and stock distributions.

US: Ford and GE Healthcare over the next 100 days will produce 50,000 low-cost ventilators at one of the automaker’s plants in Michigan, according to a plan made public on Monday. The firm will be able to produce 30,000 more ventilators per month once it turns out the first 50,000 units.

PLACIDO DOMINGO: Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, 79, was released from a hospital in Acapulco, Mexico, where he was being treated for Covid-19 and is now recovering at his home there, health personnel confirmed to EFE on Monday.

UK: A study conducted by British universities using data on the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in China estimates that the mortality rate from the disease is 0.66 percent, taking into account that a portion of the infected persons remain undetected. The death rate for patients ages 20-30 is 0.031 percent but is 7.8 percent in patients 80 and older. The study further estimates that 50-80 percent of the world population will become infected, although the majority of people recover, even if they experience serious symptoms.

TURKEY: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday launched a campaign to help his countrymen suffering economic problems resulting from the coronavirus crisis and announced that he will donate seven months of his salary to aid them, urging members of his Islamist AKP party, companies and citizens to donate to the campaign.

BRAZIL: The coronavirus death toll in Brazil rose to 159 on Monday, 23 more than the day before, and the number of confirmed cases increased to 4,579, according to the government.

ECUADOR: The Ecuadorian government announced Monday that it will create a special burial ground in which to inter people who die in the coronavirus epidemic in the city of Guayaquil, the hardest-hit urban area in the country. President Lenin Moreno announced that BanEcuador development bank president Jorge Wated has been placed in charge of the project. A total of 1,962 confirmed cases have been detected and 60 people have died in Ecuador from Covid-19.

COSTA RICA: Costa Rican authorities said that there are 330 confirmed coronavirus cases nationwide and announced special measures to take care of the country’s most vulnerable population, including women, children, the elderly and people with chronic health problems. Two people have died so far in the epidemic.

PANAMA: Panama Canal administrator Ricaurte Vasquez said Monday that the Dutch cruise ship Zaandam – on which more than 100 coronavirus cases had been detected and four passengers had died – passed through the canal “without incident” en route to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in an “exceptional” operation, given that other vessels with coronavirus cases may not transit the waterway.

GUATEMALA: On Monday, 435 Europeans, most of them French citizens, boarded a jet at Guatemala City’s La Aurora airport to fly to Paris, an operation supported by the French Embassy via Evelop Airlines.

MEXICO: Former Mexican Finance Secretary Carlos Urzua predicted in a Monday column in the daily El Universal that Mexico’s economy will contract by more than 6 percent this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and called for increased public spending to deal with that scenario. Mexico has 993 confirmed coronavirus cases and has a death toll of 20 from the pandemic.

HONDURAS: Honduran health authorities reported Monday 139 confirmed coronavirus cases with seven deaths so far, at least one of them an American citizen.

COLOMBIA: The Colombian Health Ministry on Monday reported 798 confirmed Covid-19 cases, 96 more than on Sunday and the largest increase in a single day so far during the pandemic. A total of 14 people have died from Covid-19 so far.

PERU: Peru extended its movement restrictions and curfew to combat the coronavirus epidemic nationwide on Monday, and it will be enforced particularly strictly in the regions of Tumbes, Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad and Loreto because of local residents’ failure to abide by previous stay-home orders, a situation that has resulted in an increase in infections.

RUSSIA: Authorities in Moscow, epicentre of the epidemic in Russia, imposed a mandatory quarantine of 15 days on its population after widespread non-compliance with a voluntary confinement order last week. The city has reported 1,226 cases, two thirds of the total number in the country, which was at 1,836 and nine deaths after a surge of infections in the last 24 hours.