Death grip loosens on Spain, Italy

MADRID — A week ago, emergency rooms and intensive care wards in Spain and Italy were overflowing with woozy, coughing coronavirus patients and literally buzzing with breathing machines.

So many died that Barcelona crematories have a waiting list of up to two years, forcing some people to bury loved ones temporarily in cemeteries with the expectation of exhuming them for cremation later on.

But now the two countries that have suffered more virus deaths than anywhere else in Europe are starting to see their crisis ease. Between them, Italy and Spain saw nearly 30,000 deaths and 265,000 confirmed infections in the pandemic. They, and other European countries that locked down weeks ago and ramped up testing, are now seeing the benefits.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte promised Italians Monday that they will soon “reap the fruit of these sacrifices” in personal liberties made to fight the coronavirus.

Conte declined during a press conference to say when the nationwide lockdown, now in its fifth week, would be lifted. The current measures expire April 13, but how and when Italy will enter a next phase of “coexisting” with the virus will depend on a technical panel of experts. The country's business lobby is also eager to restart production, which also has been significantly blocked by the lockdown.

In Spain, deaths and new infections dropped again on Monday. The health ministry reported 637 new fatalities, the lowest toll in 13 days, for a total of over 13,000 dead. New recorded infections were 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.