The consensus for all citizens to wear face masks to curve the devastating spread of Covid-19 solidifies as the global death toll soars over 64,750.

More than 1.2 million people have now fallen ill since the virus was first recorded in China late last year, according to AFP.

While the darkest hours of this generation’s living memory unravel, most countries live under lockdown -some in stricter forms than others- with no signs of the pandemic slowing down.

Italy, even though it cheered the first drop in the number of coronavirus in intensive care, reports 124,632 confirmed coronavirus cases with 15,362 and 20,996 recoveries so far.

Spain has reached 126,168 cases while its death toll climbed to 11,947 and 34,219 recoveries. The country will remain in lockdown till 25 April.

The US has counted more than 7,000 coronavirus deaths and is in urgent need of protective gear for health workers and medical equipment. New York is the worst affected state in the country hit by a record of 630 deaths in one day.

Britain lost 4,300 souls out of nearly 42,000 cases with a five-year-old child among fatalities.

President Donald Trump’s administration recommended that Americans wear simple masks or scarves to slow the infection rate, the latest Western nation to reverse earlier claims that only carers needed them. Anthony Fauci, head of infectious diseases at the US National Institutes of Health, cited “recent information that the virus can actually be spread even when people just speak as opposed to coughing and sneezing”.

Germany and France are also encouraging the use of masks in public despite earlier saying that only carers needed to cover their faces.

At the same time the World Health Organization (WHO) is reviewing its guidance but has said it worries that masks could give “a false sense of security” that could lead people to be more casual about hand washing and social distancing.

Meanwhile, in the East, China mourned the patients and medical staff lost during the outbreak that started in the city of Wuhan.

The country halted while cars, trains and ships across the nation sounded their horns, and air-raid sirens wailed.

Doubts also persist about the reliability of China’s official virus figures all the while UN chief Antonio Guterres warns “The worst is yet to come,” referring to countries such as Syria, Libya and Yemen.

“The COVID-19 storm is now coming to all these theatres of conflict,” he added.

Lastly, Liberia announced that a 72-year-old man had become its first coronavirus fatality sparking concern over how the continent would cope as the virus threatens to cause food shortages for hundreds of millions of people who are lacking basic sanitary as well as medical supplies.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus cases in Greece reach 1,673 while UN warns that ‘everyone is at risk’