Spain, Austria ease lockdowns but WHO warns coronavirus ‘has not peaked’

MADRID/LONDON - Spain and Austria allowed partial returns to work on Tuesday but Britain, France and India extended coronavirus lockdowns to try to rein in the most serious pandemic in a century which the World Health Organization said had “certainly” not peaked.

Nearly 2 million people globally have been infected and more than 119,200 have died, according to a Reuters tally of official figures. The epicentre has moved from China, where the virus first emerged in December, to the United States which now has the highest death toll at 23,568. World leaders, in considering easing curbs on movement, have to balance the risks to health and the economy, as the lockdowns strangled supply lines, especially in China, and brought economic activity to a virtual halt.

The World Health Organization said the number of new cases was easing in some parts of Europe, including

Italy and Spain, but outbreaks were growing in Britain and Turkey. “The overall world outbreak, 90 percent of cases are coming from Europe and the United States of America. So we are certainly not seeing the peak yet,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a briefing in Geneva. In Spain, restrictions have helped to slow a spiralling death rate that reached its peak in early April.

The overnight death toll from the coronavirus rose to 567 on

Tuesday from 517 a day earlier, but the country reported its lowest increase in new cases since March 18. Total deaths climbed to 18,056. But some Spanish workers expressed concern that the relaxation of restrictions could trigger a new surge. “I would have preferred to wait 15 more days confined to home or at least one more week and then come back,” said Carlos Mogorron, a 27yearold engineer from Extremadura in western Spain. (Reuters)