Worldwide lockdown hardens as Spain sees deadliest day

Tightened lockdowns across the planet saw nearly half of humanity told to stay at home in a bid to stem the spi ralling coronavirus pandemic, as Spain recorded its dead liest day Tuesday and the United States braced for the full impact of the disease.

The virus has claimed nearly 38,000 lives worldwide in a health crisis that is rapidly reorganising political power, hammering the global economy and the daily existence of some 3.6 billion people.

Spain, whose outbreak is the world’s second dead liest after Italy, broke another national record of 849 deaths in one day Tuesday, dampening hopes it could have passed the peak of the crisis that has debilitated the country for weeks.

In battered Italy, flags flew at half-mast during a minute of silence to honour the more than 11,500 people who have perished from the virus, and the health workers still working through nightmarish conditions.

Although there are signs the spread of infections is slowing in Italy, hundreds are still dying every day, lead ing authorities to extend a stringent nationwide shutdown despite its crushing economic impact.

In Belgium, a 12 year old girl infected with COVID-19 was pronounced dead, a rare case of a young person succumbing to the disease, and yet another grim re minder of its reach.

‘WE NEED HELP NOW’: Across the Atlantic, the United States was preparing for its darkest days after the death toll topped 3,000 out of 163,000 known in fections — the highest case count for any country.

Scenes previously unimaginable in peacetime — such as a field hospital set to open in Central Park — shook frightened New Yorkers hunkered down in an eerily quiet city.

A US military medical ship with 1,000 beds also docked in Manhattan to relieve pressure on the city’s overwhelmed health system.

The city’s food banks are seeing a surge of newcom ers who have lost income as the world’s financial capital shuts down.

“It is my first time,” Lina Alba, a 40-year-old single mother of five, said at a food distribution centre run by the New York charity City Harvest.

She worked as a maid in a Manhattan hotel until it closed two weeks ago.

“We need the help now. This is crazy. So we don’t know what’s gonna happen in a few weeks.”

ITALY MOURNS: Italy marked a minute of silence and flew flags at half mast Tuesday to mourn the 11,591 peo ple who have died from the coronavirus pandemic that has dramatically altered life in the Mediterranean country.

The nation of 60 million people has recorded nearly a third of all fatalities caused by COVID-19 across the world.

The day of mourning marks a month in which Italy saw more deaths from a single disaster than at any time since World War II.

It was first detected in Italy near the northern finan cial hub Milan in late February before spreading and overwhelming hospitals with critically ill patients.

Italy now has nearly 4,000 people receiving intensive care treatment for COVID-19.

‘I CRIED GETTING READY’: The number of con firmed COVID-19 cases around is now approaching 38,000 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.

Health systems are in overdrive as exhausted medical professionals make grim decisions about how to distrib ute limited protective gear and life saving respirators.

“Waking up this morning I cried. I cried eating break fast. I cried getting ready,” French nurse Elise Cordier con fessed on Facebook in a post that revealed the fear and anguish of those on the front line.

But, she said, once in “the hospital locker room, I dried my tears. I breathed in. I breathed out. The people in the hospital beds are crying too, and it is I who am there to dry their tears.”

World leaders — several of whom have been stricken or forced into isolation — are still grappling for ways to deal with a crisis that is generating eco nomic and social shockwaves unseen since World War II.