Nations across Europe mark grim milestones
LONDON/MADRID:Spain’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic rose above 10,000 on Thursday even as France and Belgium announced grim milestones of their own.
Spain now has the world’s second-highest death toll after Italy at 10,003. The total deaths rose by just over 10%, with a record 950 fatalities overnight. The number of registered coronavirus cases rose about 8% from Wednesday to 110,238, the government said.
“A glimpse of hope: the curve has stabilised. We have reached ... the peak of the curve and we have started the slowdown phase,” Health minister Salvador Illa told parliament.
France became the fourth country to pass the 4,000 coronavirus deaths threshold on Wednesday, after Italy, Spain and the United States.
French health authorities reported 509 new deaths, taking the total to 4,032. The rate of increase of deaths has decelerated in France.
Belgium passed the 1,000 mark on Thursday, health officials said.
The official toll has doubled in the space of three days. There have now been 1,011 deaths and 15,348 officially recorded cases.
President Vladimir Putin extended his order keeping Russians at home until April 30, warning that the spread of coronavirus has yet to reach its peak.
The Russian leader said certain parts of the country, including Moscow, haven’t managed to get the situation under control. He said he would give additional authority to regional leaders to determine the level of response locally. Russia has more than 3,500 confirmed cases of coronavirus after a 28% increase overnight.
Italy reported 760 deaths from the coronavirus on Thursday as the number of fatalities rose again after three weeks of nationwide lockdown.
The toll over the past 24 hours compared with 727 on Wednesday. There were 4,668 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday compared with 4,782 a day earlier, as growth in infections slowed.
Confirmed cases in the country, Europe’s worst-hit nation, now total 115,242, while deaths reached 13,915. .
In the UK, plans are afoot to enable MPs to question the government virtually when parliament resumes after the Easter break on April 21. The development comes after speaker Lindsay Hoyle and several lawmakers pushed for using technology to continue parliamentary work.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the UK’s House of Commons, said in a statement on Wednesday evening that the government and parliament hoped appropriate technology would be in place by April 21, when MPs may or may not be physically present in the House.
Rees-Mogg said, “We are exploring options with the parliamentary authorities in readiness for parliament’s return.”
The government’s worst case scenario envisages a coronavirus death toll of 50,000 people if selfisolating is not adhered to, but the UK is not right now on course for a toll of that scale, a source familiar with the government’s emergency discussions said.
According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the worst day for deaths is projected to be April 12.
A so-called best case scenario in the circumstances would be a death toll of 20,000, according to the source. The UK virus death toll rose 24% in one day to 2,921, as of April 1.