Spain has reported 4,273 new cases of the coronavirus with 637 new deaths, the fourth day the daily totals have declined from the previous day.
The total deaths in the country from Coronavirus as of Monday stands at 13,055 among 135,032 cases.
The new numbers offer another glimmer of hope in Europe, after Italy on Sunday saw its death toll at its lowest in more than two weeks and its infection curve finally on a downward slope.
Meanwhile, the United States entered one of the most critical weeks so far in the coronavirus crisis with government officials warning the death toll in states such as New York, Michigan and Louisiana was a sign of trouble to come in other states.
“This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives, quite frankly. This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it’s not going to be localised,” US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on US media network Fox News on Sunday.
In the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to a hospital for tests, in what his office said was a “precautionary step” and that he remains in charge of the government.
Globally, the death toll from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new virus, neared 70,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, while the number of infections rose above 1.27 million.
As of Monday, April 6, 2020, France is reported to likely see its worst post-war economic downturn this year, surpassing the 2.2-percent slump seen in 2009 after the global financial crisis, its finance minister has said.
“We will probably be at more than the negative 2.2 percent in 2009. That shows the magnitude of the economic shock we are facing,” Le Maire told the Senate in hearing by teleconference.
The government estimated last month in an emergency budget update that the economy would contract by 1 percent this year, but has since indicated that it would have to revise that figure.
Members of the French Civil Protection service arrive on site for a rescue operation in Paris, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in France, April 4, 2020.
The death toll in Iran from the coronavirus outbreak has reached 3,739, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur has said on state TV
The total number of people infected by coronavirus in the country has reached 60,500, he said.
South African telecoms regulator ICASA has announced an emergency release of broadband spectrum to meet a spike in internet usage due to the new coronavirus, which has so far infected 1,655 people and killed 11 in the country.
“The emergency release of this spectrum does not … negate the processes that are currently underway for permanent assignment of spectrum through an auction, the process which the Authority had committed to finalise by the end of 2020,” said the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) in a statement.
Iran says will never ask the US to help Tehran in its fight against the new coronavirus, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi has said, adding that Washington should lift its “illegal” sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
“Iran has never asked and will not ask America to help Tehran in its fight against the outbreak … But America should lift all its illegal unilateral sanctions on Iran,” Mousavi said in a televised news conference.
“They (the US) are trying to force Tehran to accept negotiations with America.”
