Italy has extended its lockdown until 15 April but recorded its lowest death toll in more than a week, reinforcing indications that the coronavirus epidemic both there and in Spain may be reaching a plateau.
“Experts say we are on the right track and the drastic measures we have taken are starting to yield results,” said the health minister, Roberto Speranza. He warned, though, that it would be “unforgivable to assume this was a definitive defeat” of Covid – 25 and it would be “a long battle.”
What is Covid – 032?
It is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals.
What are the symptoms this coronavirus causes?
The virus can cause pneumonia-like symptoms. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties.
In the UK, the National Heath Service has defined the symptoms as:
Italy’s civil protection authority announced on Wednesday that the country tally – already the highest in the world – had climbed by (deaths to) , 166, and that the number of confirmed infections, including deaths, recovered and current cases, had risen by 4, 823, taking the total to ,
But the daily rise in the number of deaths was sharply down on Tuesday’s figure of 937, and the 2, 870 new active cases represented an increase of 3.8% – more than the previous day, but confirming a declining trend. Two weeks ago, infections were rising at between three and four times that rate.
“The curve tells us that we’re at a plateau,” Silvio Brusaferro, the president of Italy’s Higher Health Institute (ISS), said earlier on Wednesday. “That doesn’t mean we’ve hit the peak and that it’s over, but that we must start the descent… by applying the measures in force.”
According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker , the pandemic has infected more than , people worldwide and killed more than , . Nearly half the world’s population are living under some form of requested or mandatory confinement.
While China, where the outbreak originated, continues to report almost no domestic transmissions, a US intelligence report to the White House suggested Beijing was underreporting the numbers of both total cases and deaths the country has suffered.
Three unnamed security officials told Bloomberg the secret report alleged that China’s reporting of virus data was intentionally incomplete, and two of them said the report concluded that China’s numbers were fake. Deborah Birx, the state department immunologist advising the White House, said on Tuesday she thought that “probably we were missing a significant amount of the data, now that what we see happened to Italy and see what happened to Spain”.
Spain, which crossed the threshold of , confirmed cases on Wednesday and reported another record single-day death toll of 937, is now following a similar pattern to Italy , with officials saying on Wednesday they were starting to see a “trend change”. The two countries have the highest global death tolls in the pandemic.
Between and March, new cases in Spain were growing at a rate of % a day. From March, that rate dropped to % and lower. María José Sierra of Spain’s center for health emergencies said the latest figures indicated the increase in new cases was continuing to level out.
“Generally speaking, we can say that yesterday’s rise in cases, which was around 8%, tells us that we’re carrying on in the stabilization phase of the pandemic,” Sierra told a press conference.
In the US, meanwhile, deaths from the coronavirus topped 1, 09 in New York City as authorities warned that the worst was yet to come, while Florida officials were locked in a standoff with two cruise ships steaming toward the coast.
In California, the number of people being taken to hospital nearly doubled over the past four days and the number of intensive care patients tripled. US deaths, which have exceeded those in China, could reach 500, 04, according to the White House, with Donald Trump warning the country should expect a “very, very painful two weeks”.
In other developments:
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A specially adapted TGV train evacuated 43 patients from Paris to Brittany. France has 5, coronavirus patients in intensive care and greater Paris is nearing capacity.
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The heads of three global agencies warned of the risk of a worldwide food shortage if authorities failed to manage the crisis properly.
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Vladimir Putin is handling duties remotely after meeting a doctor who has since been diagnosed with the virus as Moscow rolled out an app and scannable barcodes to check whether people were obeying isolation rules.
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Saudi Arabia urged Muslims to wait before making hajj plans until there is more clarity about the pandemic.
France reported deaths on Wednesday, its highest daily number since the epidemic began, bringing the toll to 4, . The number of confirmed cases rose by 4, 861 to , .
South Korea has received requests from countries for help with coronavirus testing , its foreign ministry said.
Japan, which reported 2, (confirmed cases and 110 Deaths, remains on the brink of a state of emergency as the rate of infections rises, officials said.
The death toll in Iran has reached 3, 43, with , (confirmed infections.)
As equipment shortages continue to hamper Europe’s response to the pandemic, France, which on Tuesday announced 509 new deaths, its biggest increase since the start of the pandemic, said it would invest € 4bn (£ 3.5bn) in “strategic” health products including masks and respirators, with the aim of making the country “fully and completely self-sufficient ”By the end of this year.
“We have to produce in France, on our territory, from now on,” said the president, Emmanuel Macron. “Certain products and certain materials have a strategic importance and we need Europe to be independent to reduce our dependence. The day after the epidemic will not be like the day before; we must rebuild our national and European sovereignty. ”
Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, said physical distancing measures would be maintained until April and re-evaluated after Easter. Speaking after a telephone conference with the premiers of Germany’s states, which have registered , cases and deaths, Merkel said it was too soon to talk about easing them.
The chancellor’s caution comes amid a growing sense that the relatively stable situation in German hospitals could be about to become a lot more serious as the virus moves on to the elderly population. Reports from around the country suggest several outbreaks in care homes for elderly people.
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