Spain death toll tops 2,000 after 462 deaths in 24 hours
MADRID: The coronavirus death toll in Spain surged to 2,182 after 462 people died within 24 hours, the health ministry said on Monday. The death rate showed a 27% increase on the figures released a day earlier, with the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 rising to 33,089 in Spain.
Despite an unprecedented national lockdown which was put in place on March 14, the number of deaths and infections have spiralled in Spain, with the figures growing as the country steps up its capacity for testing.
And the lockdown, which was initially put in place for two weeks, will be extended until April 11 to try to curb the spread, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said - in a measure which will be put to parliament on Tuesday.
The rise in infections in this country of 46 million people has brought Spain’s health care system to the brink of collapse, particularly in Madrid, the worst-hit area, which has registered 10,575 cases, and where 1,263 people have died - accounting for 58% of the national death toll.
Some 3,910 health care workers have tested positive for the virus, or around 12% of those infected, the health ministry’s emergencies coordinator Fernando Simon said.
Officials have repeatedly warned that the number of deaths and infections would continue to rise this week and that the worst was yet to come.
GERMANY: GATHERINGS OF MORE THAN 2 BANNED BERLIN: Gatherings of more than two people will be banned in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said, as Europe’s biggest economy toughened restrictions to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Germany has already closed down schools, non-essential shops and urged people not to gather in groups but has not yet imposed blanket limits on group gatherings.
“Our own behaviour is the most effective way” of slowing the rate of infection, Merkel said of the unprecedented nationwide measures, which are initially slated to remain in force for two weeks.
The measures will be imposed by individual states, who will decide when to roll them out.
Some exceptions to the public gathering rule will be allowed, including for families living under the same roof and going out together for fresh air.
On top of the ban on gatherings, businesses like massage studios and hairdressers where people come into close contact will be shut. And restaurants will be closed across Germany except for takeaway food.
The German chancellor appealed to citizens’ “reason and empathy” in implementing the contact restrictions, saying she had been “very moved” by how closely people had stuck to less stringent measures implemented in recent days.
“That’s how we can save lives,” the chancellor recalled.
“It’s of vital, vital importance to obey the rule” to remain at least two metres away from other people, Merkel said, adding “at that distance the risk of infection is close to zero”.
Meanwhile, Merkel only had brief contact with a doctor who later tested positive so there is a good chance she is not infected, her chief of staff said on Sunday.
Merkel, 65, had on Friday afternoon received a vaccine shot against pneumococcus, a pneumonia-causing bacteria, from the doctor and she went into quarantine on Sunday after learning of his positive test result.
She was only briefly in contact with the doctor, said Helge Braun, her chief of staff.
“Given that, we are optimistic that the chancellor is perhaps not infected at all,” Braun told a talk show on ARD television late on Sunday.