Health
COVID-19 cases in Italy, Spain and France have a slowdown due to lockdowns [Video]
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- Three European countries (Italy, Spain and France) have begun to show initial signs of a slowdown around 3 weeks since the lockdown was imposed.
- Both Italy and Spain showed drops in daily fatalities for three consecutive days.
- Infections and casualties in France also showed after roughly three weeks after its lockdown, but records are erratic as there are sudden spikes along with the slowdown
Italy, Spain and France, the three most hit by the coronavirus in Europe, have started to show initial signs of decline in deaths on Sunday; they all imposed lockdown in March. All countries likewise began to exhibit a flattening rate of new cases by showing more than one consecutive day of decline.
Italy was the first European country to undergo lockdown on March 10. It had the highest recorded death toll in the world due to COVID-19, registering 15,887 fatalities. Italians were ordered to remain in their residence except for essential travel, while only essential businesses were functional.
On March 30, Italy’s 21st day of the lockdown, daily new cases of COVID-19 reduced to 4,050, from 5,217 the day before. Ever since, there was only a moderate rise of new cases — registering around 4,000 to 4,800 per day, fewer than the 6,557 peak on March 21.
On Sunday, the 27th day of the lockdown, Italy recorded its third consecutive daily fatality decrease at 525. On March 27, the country had 919 fatalities in a day.
Spain also showed the same trend. The country began to show a consecutive three-day decline in fatalities three weeks after its lockdown that started on March 14. On Sunday, the daily death toll dropped to 694 from April 3’s record of 850.
In the new cases, Spain showed a four-day decline on Sunday — significantly decreasing from the previous day’s record of 6,969 to 5,478.
Meanwhile, lockdown in France started on March 17, one week after Italy’s lockdown. New cases and fatalities also slowed after almost three weeks since the lockdown. However, the situation in the country is quite unclear as there was a spike in fatalities and new cases on April 2 and 3.
The surge was due to the past recordings of infections and casualties in nursing homes instead of hospitals.
There were 518 fatalities recorded in France on Sunday, the 18th day of the lockdown, which is a significant drop from April 2’s peak of 1,355. However, the figures on Sunday showed a return to the curve relatively the same with the records prior to April 2.
On Sunday, France posted its third consecutive day of decline in new cases, with 2,886 new cases — lower than the 23,060 new cases two days before.
Meanwhile, in the United States, no nationwide lockdown was in effect, but citizens are confined within their homes as ordered by the state and city officials. America has registered more than twice COVID-19 cases than any other country.
Source: AOL.com
