Italy has suffered its deadliest day yet in the coronavirus outbreak and is poised to overtake China as the world’s worst affected country, as Europe tightened a lockdown affecting about 250 million people.
In all, 475 people died in Italy during the previous 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 2,978, with almost 36,000 cases reported by Wednesday evening.
About 4,000 people have recovered, with 2,250 in intensive care.
With an economic and social shutdown deepening across Europe, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, described the coronavirus crisis as “the biggest challenge since the second world war”.
In a rare TV address to the nation, she appealed to citizens to help protect each other by restricting social interactions. All state-run attempts to curb the spread of Covid-19 would prove futile unless individuals changed their behaviour, Merkel said.
“This is serious, so take it seriously,” the chancellor said in pre-recorded remarks that will go out on German television just before the night’s main news programmes.
“Since German reunification, actually, since the second world war, there has never been a challenge for our country in which acting in solidarity was so very crucial.”
Merkel said her government was focused on the main goal of “slowing down the spread of the virus, to stretch it out over months and thus win time”.
Describing Covid-19 as “an enemy against humanity”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director general, said Africa must “wake up and prepare”. Countries around the world must take a comprehensive approach, he said.
“To suppress and control, countries must isolate, test, treat and trace,” Tedros said, adding that this strategy “must be the backbone of the response in every country”.
The International Labour Organization said the pandemic was becoming “a major labour-market and economic crisis” that would significantly increase global unemployment and risked leaving up to 25 million more people out of work as well as dramatically reducing workers’ incomes.
The coronavirus has infected more than 212,000 people worldwide and killed more than 8,700, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. Outside China, where the virus originated, two-thirds of all cases and three-quarters of all deaths are in Europe, which has now recorded more than 3,800 deaths.
Belgium, which has reported 1,085 cases of Covid-19 and 10 deaths, became the latest EU state to confine its citizens on Wednesday, with all shops except supermarkets, pharmacies, banks and bookstores closing at midday and employees expected to work from home unless social distancing is guaranteed at work.
“These decisions were not taken lightly, and were taken because we are obliged to by the evolving situation,” said the prime minister, Sophie Wilmès. “Success in our struggle against Covid-19 is inextricably linked to the efforts of each person.”
In Germany, which has reported 9,367 infections and 27 deaths, non-essential businesses and shops have shut, religious gatherings are banned and holiday travel has been halted.
Restrictions in both countries are still less severe than elsewhere. In France, where the daily update of its coronavirus cases had risen to 9,134, with 264 deaths, residents who leave home must now carry a form declaring they are outside for one of five permitted reasons, including to shop, work or visit the doctor.
More than 100,000 police officers are enforcing the regulations, with the fine for flouting them raised to €135 (£124).
The health minister, Olivier Véran, said on Wednesday the country could hope to start seeing a slowdown of infections in eight to 12 days. – Guardian UK.
