Laborers build a field hospital outside the La Fe Hospital to admit patients suffering from the COVID-19 coronavirus in Valencia, April 5, 2020. Spain saw its third consecutive daily decline in the number of people dying from the coronavirus pandemic, official figures showed. (JOSE JORDAN / AFP)
MADRID/LONDON/BRUSSELS/ADDIS ABABA/PARIS/BERLIN/VIENNA/ATHENS/SAO PAULO/LISBON – Global cases of the new coronavirus have passed 1 million and more than 64,000 people have died, tally showed on Sunday, in a pandemic that has hammered the world economy.
Although infections of COVID-19 are still surging in Europe, with a total of 583,141 confirmed cases and 42,334 deaths reported as of Saturday morning, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the region could see a potential stabilization of the outbreak.
About 44 African countries have already banned mass gatherings, closed public spaces and educational institutions due to concerns related to the spread of COVID-19 pandemic across the continent, according to the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
US President Donald Trump meanwhile warned of a “very horrendous” phase in the pandemic in the country.
READ MORE: Trump warns of 'horrendous' phase, many fatalities from virus
Spain
Spain saw a decline in the number of new deaths from the coronavirus for the third consecutive day, raising hopes that the worst of the country’s outbreak may be over.
The Health Ministry reported 674 fatalities in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 12,418. The number of confirmed cases rose to 130,759, from 124,736 a day earlier.
Italy
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over 15,000 lives in locked-down Italy, as the total number of infections, fatalities and recoveries has risen to 124,632, according to the fresh data released by the country's Civil Protection Department on Saturday.
Speaking during a televised press conference, Civil Protection Department Chief Angelo Borrelli confirmed that there were 2,886 new active coronavirus infections compared to Friday, bringing the nationwide total to 88,274 cases.
UK
Imperial College London Professor Neil Ferguson, who advises the government on its response to the pandemic, told the BBC he sees the outbreak in the UK peaking in the next 7-10 days.
Asked about a potential strategy for ending the nationwide lockdown, he predicted a series of measures including ramping up testing and immunity certificates. Ferguson predicting the death toll in the UK would be in the range of 7,000 to just over 20,000. It’s 4,313 as of Saturday.
On the same show, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the UK needs 18,000 ventilators, as many as twice the current supply. It will have a further 1,500 by the end of the week, he said.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in good spirits as he works from his Downing Street office after testing positive for Covid-19 more than a week ago, Hancock told Sky News on Sunday.
Carrie Symonds, the pregnant fiance of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said she had spent the past week in bed with symptoms of the novel coronavirus but after seven days of rest felt stronger and was on the mend.
Switzerland
Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset told newspaper SonntagsZeitung in an interview that “at the moment, it seems illusory that we can change a lot by April 20” in response to a question of whether current lockdown measures would be extended beyond April 19.
“The virus sets the pace,” Berset told the newspaper. “The timing of the easing is not only a political decision, it also depends on the assessments of the scientists,” he was quoted as saying.
“It will not be a case of an immediate exit when one is decided but rather “a transition with some easing.”
Switzerland’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has risen by 19 to 559, the health ministry said on Sunday. The number of people testing positive increased to 21,100 from 20,278 on Saturday, it said.
Switzerland has tested more than 158,000 people for COVID-19.
A French firefighter from Marins Pompiers unit of Marseille wearing protective equipment escorts a woman suspected of being infected with the novel coronavirus in Marseille, April 2, 2020. (CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP)
France
France will beef up measures to help the economy as much as needed and is ready to take on debt to avoid a collapse, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.
“We will provide the necessary financial means as long as the crisis lasts,” he said. “But rebuilding will be long, difficult and costly.”
Le Maire said that more than 100,000 companies have already made requests for state-backed loans worth a total of 20 billion euros (US$21.6 billion) to help weather the crisis.
The total number of deaths from the coronavirus in France reached a new high on Saturday as the government included more previously unreported deaths in nursing homes.
The health ministry reported 441 new deaths from COVID-19 in the country’s hospitals on Saturday - less than the high of 588 reported on Friday - for a total hospital death tally of 5,532.
Germany
The number of confirmed cases in Germany continued to rise, but at a slower pace than a day earlier. Germany had 96,092 confirmed cases on Sunday, 4,933 more than on Saturday.
The increase in deaths was almost identical to the previous day. Some 169 more people died, bringing the number German fatalities to 1,444, according to Johns Hopkins University.Greece
Greece has quarantined a second migrant facility on its mainland after a 53-year-old man tested positive for the new coronavirus, the migration ministry said on Sunday. The Afghan man lives with his family at the Malakasa camp along with hundreds of asylum seekers. He has been transferred to a hospital in Athens.
Tests on his contacts will continue as the public health agency tries to trace the route of the virus.
Greece recorded its first case of the new coronavirus at the end of February. Since then, it has confirmed 1,673 cases of COVID-19 and 68 deaths.
Brazil
Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved a constitutional amendment for a “war budget” to separate coronavirus-related spending from the government’s main budget and shield the economy as the country surpassed 10,000 confirmed cases.
The war budget still needs the Senate’s approval by three-fifths of the votes in two rounds expected to take place next week.
Late on Friday, the lower house approved the main text of the bill with 423 votes in favor and one opposed in a second round of voting after a first score of 505 in favor and two against.
Brazil’s coronavirus death toll rose to 431 from 359, while the number of confirmed cases jumped to 10,278 from 9,056, according to Health Ministry figures released on Saturday afternoon.
A field hospital is under construction inside the TFC Center in Detroit, Michigan on April 4. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)
Portugal
Confirmed coronavirus cases in Portugal pushed past the 10,000 mark on Saturday, while government data showed more than half a million Portuguese workers were at risk of being temporarily laid off due to the outbreak.
Portugal has confirmed 10,524 coronavirus cases and 266 deaths, with health authorities expecting the outbreak to plateau at the end of May.
Portugal extended its state of emergency by 15 days on Thursday, and tightened measures to restrict movements, especially during the normally busy Easter holiday period.
Guatemala
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei has banned travel between the different departments of the Central American country before and during Easter to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The ban comes as Guatemalans living in large cities were preparing to head home to celebrate Easter with family members in the countryside, many of them older and more vulnerable.
Giammattei also announced a ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol that will take effect on Sunday afternoon and end on April 12.
Even though Guatemala has only 61 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and two deaths, one of the lowest numbers in the region, Giammattei had already put in place both a curfew and travel restrictions.
