Over 355,000 People Have Now Recovered from Coronavirus Around the World
Confirmed COVID-19 cases tops 1.6 million people globally
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Over 355,000 people around the world have now been confirmed to have recovered from deadly coronavirus, the latest figures show.
At the time of publishing, new data reveals that confirmed cases of the Chinese virus have now topped 1.6 million globally.
Of those confirmed cases, 357,181 people have recovered, with the number rising by the thousands every day.
The number of people confirmed to have died from COVID-19 has now hit 96,365, however.
The number translates to roughly 23 percent of patients having so far recovered after being diagnosed with the illness.
However, the true figure for confirmed cases is likely to be much higher because some countries are only testing coronavirus patients who require hospital treatment and China is believed to be covering-up the veracity of the outbreak.
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Up to 80 percent of cases of the virus is thought to be mild enough to treat at home, meaning they are not being counted among the infection or recovery totals.
The country with most recoveries is China, with 77,678 people recovering from the virus, followed by Spain, Germany, and Iran.
Keeping pace with the recovery, China this week eased the lockdown of epicenter city Wuhan, 77 days after it went into strict lockdown.
People who have been certified as healthy are now allowed to come and go freely, though temperature checks and home visits from medics are being carried out to ensure there is no second wave of infection.
European nations are also carefully plotting their routes out of lockdown, amid signs the worst outbreak of any world region could be easing there.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said: "We are flattening the curve because we are rigorous about social distancing.
"But it's not a time to be complacent. It's not a time to do anything different than we've been doing."
In a sharp reminder of the danger, New York state has recorded its highest one-day increase in deaths, 779, for an overall death toll of more than 6,000.
In China, the lockdown of Wuhan, the city where the global pandemic began, has been lifted after 76 days.
Wuhan residents will have to use a smartphone app showing that they are healthy and have not been in recent contact with anyone confirmed to have the virus.
Even then, schools remain closed, people are still checked for a temperature when they enter buildings, and masks are strongly encouraged.
In the US, with about 13,000 deaths and 400,000 infections, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is considering changing self-isolation guidelines to make it easier for those exposed to someone with the virus to return to work if they have no symptoms.
Under the proposed guidance, aimed at workers in critical fields, such people would be allowed back to work if they take their temperature twice a day and wear a mask.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, said that the US government has been working on plans to eventually reopen the country and restart the economy amid "glimmers of hope" that social distancing is working to stop the virus's spread.
He told Fox News: "That doesn't mean we're going to do it right now.
"But it means we need to be prepared to ease into that. And there's a lot of activity going on."
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In Spain, which has more than 14,000 deaths, budget minister Maria Jesus Montero said that Spaniards will progressively recover their "normal life" from April 26 onwards but warned that the "de-escalation" of the lockdown will be "very orderly to avoid a return to the contagion."
French authorities have also begun to speak openly of planning the end of the confinement period currently set to expire on April 15, without giving specifics.
The virus has claimed more than 10,000 lives in France.
Worldwide, the true numbers are almost certainly much higher, because of limited testing, different rules for counting the dead, and deliberate underreporting by some governments such as the Chinese Communist Party (CPC).
