After US, Italy loses 20,000 lives to virus
RELIEF FOR SPAIN One of the worst-hit countries so far, Spain started to ease tough lockdown restrictions on Monday
ROME/ MADRID: Italy’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic topped 20,000 on Monday but its number of critically ill patients dropped for the tenth successive day. The 566 new deaths reported by the civil protection service take Italy’s fatalities total to 20,465 - officially second in the world behind the US.
The drop in patients in intensive care from a peak of 4,068 on April 3 to 3,260 on Monday confirmed a general improvement in Italy’s Covid-19 trends.
The rise in new infections dropped to a new low of just 2%. But a top Italian infectious diseases expert said data were hard to read because new cases showing up now could have occurred up to three weeks ago, given the incubation period.
The Mediterranean country last week extended its national lockdown until May 3.
In contrast, Spain, one of the countries worst hit by the epidemic, on Monday started to ease tough lockdown restrictions that have kept people confined to their homes for more than a month and put a brake on economic activity.
Spain’s cumulative death toll from the coronavirus rose to 17,489 on Monday, up 517 from 16,972 on Sunday, the health ministry said. Confirmed cases totalled 169,496, up from 166,019 the previous day.
However, in a sign that the situation was taking a turn for the better, some businesses, including construction and manufacturing, were allowed to reopen.
But most of the population are still confined to their homes, and shops, bars and public spaces will remain closed until April 26.
People at main transport hubs were handed face masks as they went to work on Monday morning. “The health of workers must be guaranteed. If this is minimally affected, the activity cannot restart,” interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told Cadena Ser radio station.
The lockdown has helped slow a spiralling death rate that reached its peak in early April.