SPAIN’S CORONAVIRUS CASES increased by 7,800 on Friday to total 64,059. There were a total of 4,858 deaths, 769 more than a day earlier.
The day-on-day increase of infections is slightly lower for the first time since a rapid rise in early March. There was a 8,500 increase reported yesterday. Spain has the second-highest tally in Europe and fourth in the world.
The worldwide death toll climbed to more than 24,000, according to Johns Hopkins University, but more than 124,000 people have recovered, about half in China.
Madrid, home to a substantial number of Irish people, remains worst-hit, even as the virus grows across the country.
The country is in a strict lockdown until at least 11 April, with Spanish police fining and arrest people with are outside without reason.
One Irish person in Madrid who spoke to TheJournal.ie praised the solidarity of the people in the city, but said the place had been transformed by the virus.
“At the moment in Spain, when someone goes into the hospital you don’t know if you’re going to see them again,” they said.
US
The US has become the the hardest hit nation in the world as the number of cases surge.
New York state, the epicentre of the US outbreak, reported 100 more deaths in one day, accounting for almost 30% of the 1,300 fatalities nationwide. Governor Andrew Cuomo said the number of deaths will increase soon as critically ill patients who have been on ventilators for days succumb.
The White House’s coronavirus response co-ordinator, Deborah Birx, said counties in the Mid West around Chicago and Detroit are seeing a rapid increase in cases.
Washington DC confirmed 36 new cases, raising its total to 267. The district is under a state of emergency with major attractions closed and White House and Capitol tours cancelled.
Russian authorities ramped up testing this week after widespread criticism of insufficient screening.
The stay-home order for India’s 1.3 billion people threw out of work the backbone of the nation’s economy — rickshaw drivers, fruit sellers, cleaners and others who buy food with their daily earnings. The government announced an £18 billion stimulus to deliver monthly rations to 800 million people.
In China, where the virus is believed to have started, the National Health Commission reported 55 new cases, 54 of them imported infections. Again there were no new cases reported in Wuhan, the provincial capital where coronavirus first emerged in December. China is barring most foreigners from entering.
In a phone call on Friday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told US President Donald Trump that China “understands the United States’ current predicament over the Covid-19 outbreak and stands ready to provide support within its capacity”.
The two countries should “work together to boost co-operation in epidemic control and other fields, and develop a relationship of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win co-operation”, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
With reporting from Dominic McGrath
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