Spain calls for action from Europe as daily death toll rises again

Dutch recall 600,000 faulty Chinese masks and Germany takes patients from France

Spain has has joined Italy and France in demanding that Europe do more to help as it reported another record single-day increase in coronavirus deaths and moved to further tighten its already strict national lockdown.

Spanish authorities said on Sunday 838 people had died from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s death toll to 6,528, with 78,797 confirmed cases. All non-essential workers are being ordered to stay at home for two weeks from Monday.

Fernando Simón, head of Spain’s centre for health emergencies, said the situation was stabilising, but “the main problem is making sure intensive care units aren’t overloaded”. ICUs in six of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions were at full capacity.

Italy on Sunday reported 756 new deaths, taking its total to 10,779. The rate slowed for a second day, while new confirmed cases rose by 5.6% to 3,815. This was the lowest increase of the epidemic so far, offering some hope that it may be nearing its peak there.

Spain and Italy account for more than half of the world’s death toll from Covid-19 and are each still seeing hundreds of deaths a day. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, the virus has now infected more than 680,000 people and killed more than 32,000 around the world.

Read more at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/29/spain-poised-to-tighten-coronavirus-lockdown-after-record-daily-toll