After worst day, France’s toll still rising

In promising news, cases fall in hard-hit Italy, Spain

PARIS — France’s health minister on Monday reported the country’s highest 24-hour death toll since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Olivier Veran said that 833 people died of the novel coronavirus in hospitals and nursing homes since Sunday. Though some predicted that the infection rate might start to slow, Veran said that “we have not reached the end of the ascent of this epidemic.”

Meanwhile, Japan considered a state of emergency for Toyko and other areas because of soaring infections in the country with the world’s third-largest economy and its oldest population.

And Kenya increased its restrictions Monday to combat the coronavirus, announcing travel bans into and out of the capital city, Nairobi, the port of Mombasa and two counties.

Worldwide, more than 1.3 million people have been confirmed infected and over 70,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are certainly much higher because of limited testing, different ways nations count the dead and deliberate under-reporting by some governments.

Elsewhere around the world, Austria and the Czech Republic both began openly discussing how to ease some of the crippling restrictions, starting with reopening some small shops and garden centers next week.

The number of deaths in Britain climbed by more than 400 on Monday, for a total of nearly 5,400. Sunday was especially bleak, with more than 600 deaths, more even than Italy recorded.

Italy’s day-to-day count of new COVID-19 cases dipped again, for the smallest one-day increase in early three weeks. The country, ravaged by the virus, also saw a drop for the third straight day in the number of intensive care beds occupied by infected patients.

Premier Giuseppe Conte promised Italians that they will soon “reap the fruit of these sacrifices” in personal liberties, though he declined to say when the lockdown would be lifted.

Italy has by far the world’s highest death toll, over 16,500, but the pressure on intensive care units in the north has eased so much that the region is no longer airlifting patients to other regions.

Nursing coordinator Maria Berardelli at the hard-hit Pope John XXIII hospital in Bergamo said that while the numbers of new patients had eased up a bit, hospital staff members were still pulling long, difficult shifts.

“There has been no reduction in the work,” Berardelli said. “There have been fewer admissions to the emergency room, but our intensive care units are still full, so the activity hasn’t been reduced.”

In Spain, the number of deaths and new infections dropped again. The health ministry reported 637 new deaths, the lowest toll in 13 days, for a total of over 13,000 dead. The number of new infections was also the lowest in two weeks.

Emergency rooms in the hard-hit Madrid region of 6.6 million were returning almost to normal a week after scenes of patients sleeping on floors and in chairs.

Transport, Mobility and Urban Affairs Minister José Luis Ábalos said the figures show Spain is entering “a new phase of the battle.”

“This new phase does not mean we can let down our guard. We are assessing the measures that we will need to adopt,” Ábalos said.

It was a message repeated by leaders around the world: Any gains could easily be reversed if people do not continue to abide by lockdown rules.