■ The world digs in for the long haul as cases top 650,000.
Cases top 650,000; US leads countries in reported infections
BERLIN — The number of confirmed coronavirus infections worldwide topped 650,000 Saturday as new cases stacked up quickly in Europe and the United States and officials dug in for a long fight against the pandemic.
The latest landmark came two days after the world passed 500,000 infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, showing that much work remains to be done to slow the spread of the virus. It showed nearly 31,000 deaths.
While the U.S. now leads the world in reported infections — with more than 121,000 cases — five countries exceed its roughly 2,000 deaths: Italy, Spain, China, Iran and France.
“We cannot completely prevent infections at this stage, but we can and must in the immediate future achieve fewer new infections per day, a slower spread,” German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, who is in quarantine at home after her doctor tested positive for the virus, told her compatriots in an audio message. “That will decide whether our health system can stand up to the virus.”
The virus already has put health systems in Italy, Spain and France under extreme strain. Lockdowns of varying severity have been introduced across Europe, nearly emptying streets in normally bustling cities, including Paris where drone photos showed the city’s landmarks eerily deserted.
Merkel appealed to Germans to “be patient.”
Her chief of staff said Germany — where authorities closed nonessential shops and banned gatherings of more than two in public — won’t relax its restrictions before April 20.
Spain, where stay-athome restrictions have been in place for nearly two weeks, reported Saturday that its total was closing in on 6,000 deaths.
Another 8,000 confirmed infections pushed that count above 72,000.
But Spain’s director of emergencies, Fernando Simon, saw a ray of hope, noting that the rate of infection is slowing and figures “indicate that the outbreak is stabilizing and may be reaching its peak in some areas.”
Doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers in Spain’s worst-hit regions are working nonstop and falling ill at an alarming rate. More than 9,000 health workers in the country have been infected.
“We are completely overwhelmed,” said paramedic Pablo Rojo at Barcelona’s Dos de Maig hospital. “Seven or eight (patients transported today) and all with COVID-19. And the average age is decreasing. They’re not 80 years old anymore, they are now 30 and 40 years old.”
“Sometimes you become a bit paranoid, you don’t know any more when you pick up the phone if you have cleaned your hands, if you’ve sanitized them or not,” Rojo said.
Spain has struggled to get coronavirus tests and protective gear for health workers. The government has started flights to transport the supplies directly from China to reduce waiting times.
As the epicenter has shifted westward, the situation has calmed in China, where some restrictions have been lifted. Six subway lines restored limited service in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December, after the city had its official coronavirus risk evaluation downgraded from high to medium on Friday. Five districts of the city of 11 million people had other travel restrictions loosened after their risk factor was downgraded to low.
In Finland, police at roadblocks started restricting the movement of people into and out of its worst-hit Uusimaa region, which includes the capital, Helsinki.
Countries are still scrambling to bring home some citizens stranded abroad by border closures and a nearshutdown of flights.
On Saturday, 174 foreign tourists and four Nepali nationals in the foothills of Mount Everest were flown out days after being stranded on the only airstrip serving the world’s highest mountain.
In neighboring India, authorities sent a fleet of buses to the outskirts of the capital to meet an exodus of migrant workers desperately trying to reach their home villages during the world’s largest lockdown.
Thousands of people had fled their New Delhi homes after Prime Minister Narendra
Modi announced a 21day lockdown that began Wednesday and effectively put millions out of work.
New York remained the worst-hit U.S. city.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the struggle to defeat the virus will take “weeks and weeks and weeks.”
Americans braced for worsening conditions elsewhere, with worrisome infection numbers being reported in Chicago, Detroit and New Orleans.
Virus cases have been rising rapidly in some American cities such as Detroit, where poverty and poor health have been problems for years.