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Coronavirus live news: US deaths could reach 240,000 as UN says world faces worst crisis since WW2

US has one 1 in 5 cases globally; global cases pass 850,000; record daily fatalities in UK, France, Italy, Spain and Russia. Follow the latest updates.

Moving away from the US now to Saudi Arabia, which has urged Muslims to wait before making plans to attend the annual haj pilgrimage until there is more clarity about the pandemic.

Some 2.5 million pilgrims from around the world usually flock to the holiest sites of Islam in Mecca and Medina for the week-long ritual, which is a once-in-a-lifetime duty for every able-bodied Muslim and a major source of income for the kingdom.

Trump also said that “nobody knew how contagious this virus was”.

My colleagues have fact checked this:

Fact check: “Nobody knew”

“Nobody knew how contagious this was,” Trump said. “I don’t think any doctor new it at the time. People have not seen anything like this.”

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2R0ULSd

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