Daily death toll in Spain falls for first time in a week, while Russia shuts bars and restaurants
The pace of coronavirus deaths in Spain has slowed for the first time in a week, the United States has approved the largest stimulus package its in history and China has said it will temporarily ban most foreigners as the global number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 approached half a million.
Spain had recorded 655 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 4,089, the health ministry said on Thursday. The number of confirmed cases in Spain stood at 56,188.
The numbers offer a glimmer of hope a day after the country recorded one of the world’s highest one-day national death tolls of the pandemic to date – 738 – and its total number of deaths eclipsed that of China.
The head of Spain’s health emergency centre, Fernando Simón, said the data should be read with caution. “We don’t know if this will be a trend, but to a certain point, it does give us a bit of hope.”
Hours earlier, the Spanish parliament approved extending the country’s near-total lockdown to 11 April.
Nearly half of the country’s deaths have been in Madrid, forcing authorities to improvise; days after an ice-skating rink at a shopping centre was turned into a makeshift morgue, the Real Madrid football club said on Thursday that its Santiago Bernabéu stadium would be used to store donations of medical supplies.
Italy remains the hardest-hit country, with 7,503 deaths. Its infection rate has slowed for four consecutive days, a trend described as encouraging by the World Health Organization’s Europe director, Hans Kluge.
Other countries are bracing for a rapid growth in cases, and an estimated 1.7 billion people worldwide have been ordered to remain in their homes.
In Hong Kong and Japan there are concerns about a possible new wave of coronavirus cases. The governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, has asked residents to stay at home “at all costs” to avoid an “explosion” of infections.
China – which was hit by the virus first and now seems to be recovering – announced it was closing its borders to foreign nationals from this weekend, and restricting foreign airlines to one route, with no more than one weekly flight. Each Chinese airline is permitted one route to any specific country with no more than one flight per week.
Russia announced on Thursday it would close all restaurants, bars, parks and non-essential shops, as the number of confirmed cases there rose to 840. Three people have died, according to official data.
Lebanese Ministry of Information
