Uganda's coronavirus confirmed cases remain at 55. Although there was a positive case, ministry of Health, which, had announced an increment to 56 cases, moments later revised the numbers by one less - indicating that the new case is of a 34-year-old Tanzanian truck driver.
The new positive case came from the 1,120 samples tested at the Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe. Of these 744 samples were from truck drivers while 376 samples were from people under quarantine and contacts to previously confirmed positive cases. The truck driver entered Uganda via the Mutukula border on April 16 and government says efforts are underway for him to be sent back to Tanzania.
The World Health Organisation noted that Africa's confirmed coronavirus cases have spiked by 51 per cent in the last one week. Tanzania's COVID-19 cases rose to 147 after 53 new cases and one death were recorded on Friday. Kenya's cases rose to 246 after 12 samples of the 450 tested positive.
Rwanda's cases rose to 143 after 5 new cases tested positive from 760 samples on Friday. The country's recovered cases also rose to 65 after 5 more people recovered from the virus. USA once again registered deaths in excess of 2000. There were at least 2,221 registered deaths in USA - a rise from the 2,032 deaths registered on Thursday.
The United Kingdom (UK) registered a slight decline to 847 deaths from the 861 deaths registered on Thursday. Deaths in France rose slightly to 761 from the 753 deaths recorded on Thursday. Spain also registered a slight drop to 298 on Friday down from the 318 on Thursday.
CHINA REVISES DEATHS BY 50% INCREMENT
China on Friday more people have died in Wuhan in its COVID-19 crisis than originally thought, fueling doubts about the accuracy of the country's coronavirus death toll. It went ahead to include 1,290 new cases on its previously reported tally of 2,579 deaths.
The statement from Hubei Pronvince, which also said cited various reasons for the revised numbers, including "data discrepancies," a surge of cases that "overwhelmed" the health care system, and at-home deaths that were not included in the original tally.
Given the deaths occurring elsewhere, many had suspected that China had underreported the number of deaths, something the Chinese officially vehemently denied.
American President Donald Trump who has since withdrawn USA funding to the WHO blamed China for the global esclation of the COVID-19 pandemic. China's downplaying of the pandemic, lying about its person to person transmission delayed WHO's interventions.
Foreign health officials have been skeptical of China's initial reports of cases and fatalities, but Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denied China engaged in a cover-up.
SPAIN'S ALSO DEATHS UNDERREPORTED
Meanwhile, Spain's Health ministry has also changed the way it counts deaths and confirmed cases of COVID-19 and is calling on officials in all areas of the country to use the same criteria.
Ministry official Fernando Simon said the change was made to correct inconsistencies in the way the information is reported. The country's official one-day death toll reported Friday was 585, a dramatic increase from the 348 deaths that would have been reported using the previous method.
Spain has been one of the world's hardest-hit countries, with more than 188,000 confirmed cases and nearly 19,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.
There are now nearly 2.2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and nearly 148,000 deaths worldwide, according to Hopkins.
The USA is by far the world leader in confirmed cases, with more than 672,300, nearly one-third of all cases worldwide. The US also leads the world in fatalities, with more than 33,850 deaths. Spain ranks second with more than 19,400.
IMPACT ON CHILDREN
United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said that while children appear to be being spared from COVID-19's "most severe symptoms," their lives "are being totally upended."
He called for countries to "protect our children and safeguard their well-being." He said millions of children are missing school and the food they rely on at school. He said the lockdown on populations around the world also means that children confined to their homes can be "both victims and witnesses of domestic violence and abuse."