Boy, 14, is Europe’s youngest victim as death toll breaks 20,000 barrier
EUROPE’S coronavirus death toll broke the 20,000 barrier yesterday as a 14-year-old boy became its youngest fatality.
Football-loving Vitor Godinho died in hospital near Porto, Portugal.
Vitor was said to have suffered from skin disorder psoriasis, which can affect the immune system.
His death follows that of a 16-year-old French girl in a Paris hospital.
Spain yesterday announced another national record of 838 deaths in a single day, six more than Saturday’s statistic. Yesterday’s figure brings Spain’s death toll to 6,528.
Prime minister Pedro Sanchez announced tighter restrictions, telling all nonessential workers to stay at home for the next fortnight.
Spain has now entered the third week of a state of emergency which has meant the closure of theatres, restaurants, nightclubs and clothes shops. Spanish deaths from Covid-19 include Jesus Gayoso Rey, 48, the head of an elite anti-terror police unit.
Only Italy’s single-day death tally is worse than Spain’s, at 969. Italy still has Europe’s highest number of confirmed cases, more than 92,400. More than 10,000 have died.
Germany has more than 56,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases with 325 deaths and France 37,575 cases with 2,606 deaths.
Patrick Devedjian, 75, president of France’s Hauts-deSeine departmental council, yesterday became Europe’s most senior politician to die of coronavirus.
The father of four died in a hospital south of Paris, three days after tweeting he was “tired but stable” . He was not known to have any underlying medical condition.
Switzerland’s death toll has risen to 257 and the Netherlands’ by 132 in the previous 24 hours.
Europe is now the world’s most-affected continent with 20,059 deaths out of a total of 337,632 cases.
Italy and Spain have suffered three-quarters of deaths in Europe.
The number of worldwide coronavirus infections now stands at more than 600,000.
The US leads the world in reported infections, with more than 104,000 cases and about 2,000 deaths.