Spain’s health crisis far from over as coronavirus death toll surpasses 10,000

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• European officials are not yet considering lifting quarantine restrictions despite the reported decrease in new coronavirus cases.
• In Spain, More than 10 thousand individuals have reportedly died because of coronavirus.
• Spain’s health authorities claimed that it already flattened the curve with the decrease of new cases of COVID-19.

With the upsurge of coronavirus death in Italy, France, and Spain, the situation has now indicated that governments had a limited opportunity to utilize lockdowns to put an end to the coronavirus crisis, which has since hurt European unity.

Although there’s a significant decrease in the number of new COVID-19 cases in Italy and of severely infected admissions in both France and Spain, officials said it’s not yet time to ease out on restrictions that had a great impact on Europe’s economy.

On Thursday, the number of coronavirus related death in France have shot up as new data from nursing homes were counted in.

Head of Italy’s civil protection agency, Angelo Borrelli, admitted to reporters that they are not yet certain if the curve is already on its downward direction, or if it is still about to. Borelli noted, though, that they are to maintain the restriction measures across the nation.

Currently, there are around one million confirmed cases in the whole world, and with the large percentage of COVID-19 deaths recorded in Spain, France, and Italy, the health crisis in Europe is still not yet over.

Giuseppe Conte, Italian Prime Minister, is to unveil on Friday the economic measures increase debt-paying capacity for corporations as he requests for financial aid for his country under a jointly-resolution with European Union.

Italy was considered as one of the top three biggest euro economies, and it has been on lockdown as early as the first weeks of March. The response, which is expected to be lifted by April 13,  has stopped several economic activities and restricted movement except for health, work, and emergency situations.

Authorities are worried that debt incurred by Italy could lead to the departure of many investors and that they might not be attracted to any credit lines associated with the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

German’s Minister of Finance, Olaf Scholz, said all ESM grants for Spain or Italy should have to be flowing fast, but it should only be allocated for funding health systems and the human resources market.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry of Spain has confirmed that there are 950 coronavirus related deaths on the last 24 hours, its highest number to date on a period. 

In France, comparable three-day data shows that lockdowns can help slow down the spread of coronavirus, at least temporarily.

A report published on Thursday said that a preliminary and partial tally from the nursing home in France added 884 casualties more to 471 reported deaths from the hospital.

The death toll in Spain already surpassed 10,000 based on current reports.

While these numbers are quite alarming, Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Thursday that the curve already flattened, and the country has lowered the number of affected patients.

Source: Bloomberg