Grim day for Spain as death toll tops 10,000

MORE THAN 10,000 people in Spain have died after testing positive for coronavirus, as the global number of infections moves closer to a million.

Spain reported a new record in virus-related deaths yesterday, with 950 in 24 hours, although the growth in infections is waning, health ministry data showed.

The total number of deaths stood at 10,003, while coronavirus infections rose by nearly eight per cent overnight to 110,238.

The government has acknowledged that the real level of infection could be much higher because Spain only has the capacity of doing between 15,000 to 20,000 tests per day.

In the US, New York is rushing to bring in an army of medical volunteers as the statewide death toll from coronavirus doubled in 72 hours to more than 1,900.

As hotspots flared around the US, in places like New Orleans and southern California, the nation’s biggest city was the hardest hit of all, with bodies loaded on to refrigerated mortuary trucks outside overwhelmed hospitals.

“How does it end? People want answers,” said New York governor Andrew Cuomo. “I want answers. The answer is nobody knows for sure.”

President Donald Trump acknowledged that the federal stockpile is nearly depleted of personal protective equipment used by doctors and nurses and warned of trying times to come.

“Difficult days are ahead for our nation,” he said. “We’re going to have a couple of weeks, starting pretty much now, but especially a few days from now that are going to be horrific.”

There was also grim news for the US economy as figures

showed more than 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week.

The job cuts are mounting in the US as businesses close and a severe recession looms. Last week’s jobless figure is much higher than the 3.3 million reported the previous week.

Close to 940,000 people around the world have contracted the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, and more than 47,000 people have died.

The real figures are believed to be much higher because of testing shortages, differences in counting the dead and large numbers of unreported mild cases.

European nations are facing extraordinary demand for intensive care beds and are putting up makeshift hospitals, while unsure whether they will find enough healthy medical staff to run them.