Coronavirus: French death toll passes 15,000 as countries weigh restrictions

Spain and Austria allowed partial returns to work on Tuesday but France and India extended lockdowns to try to rein in a coronavirus pandemic that the World Health Organisation warned had not yet peaked.

Nearly two million people globally have been infected and more than 119,200 have died in the most serious pandemic in a century, according to a Reuters tally. The epicentre has shifted from China, where the virus first emerged in December, to the US, which now has the highest death toll at more than 24,400.

World leaders, in considering easing curbs, have to balance risks to health and to the economy as the lockdowns have strangled supply lines, especially in China, and brought economic activity to a virtual halt.

The shutdown is costing the US economy perhaps $25 billion (€22.8bn) a day in lost output, St Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard said, calling for widespread testing and risk management strategies so the economy can restart.

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US president Donald Trump, who has declared he will decide when to lift lockdowns, suggested some Democratic state governors were "mutineers" after New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he would refuse any order that risked reigniting the outbreak.

At a news conference later, Mr Cuomo added, “We don’t have a king in this country, we have a Constitution and we elect the president.”

Mr Cuomo said an additional 778 New Yorkers died from the virus on Monday.

The global economy is expected to shrink by 3 per cent this year, the International Monetary Fund said, marking the steepest downturn since the Great Depression.

The WHO said the number of new cases was tailing off in some parts of Europe, including Italy and Spain, but outbreaks were growing in the UK and Turkey.

"The overall world outbreak – 90 per cent of cases are coming from Europe and the United States of America. So we are certainly not seeing the peak yet," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a briefing in Geneva.

France officially registered more than 15,000 deaths from coronavirus infections on Tuesday, becoming the fourth country to go beyond that threshold after Italy, Spain and the US.

But the number of people in intensive care units fell to 6,730 from 6,821 over 24 hours, with this total declining for a sixth consecutive day, suggesting the national lockdown, extended to May 11th on Monday, is having positive effects in containing the disease.

During a news conference Jerome Salomon, head of the public health authority, said the number of people who died from the disease in French hospitals and nursing homes had risen by 5 per cent in a day to a cumulative total of 15,729, versus 4 per cent on Monday and Sunday.

Spain

Meanwhile, some Spanish businesses, including construction and manufacturing, were allowed to resume. Shops, bars and public spaces are to stay closed until at least April 26th.

Spain was flattening the curve on the graph representing the rate of growth of the outbreak, health minister Salvador Illa said on Tuesday. The overnight death toll from the coronavirus rose to 567 on Tuesday from 517 a day earlier, but the country reported its lowest increase in new cases since March 18th. Total deaths climbed to 18,056.

Some Spanish workers expressed concern that the relaxation of restrictions could trigger a new surge of infections. But for Roberto Aguayo, a 50-year-old Barcelona construction worker, the restart came just in time.

“We really needed it, just when we were going to run out of food we returned to work,” he told Reuters.

Italy, which has the world’s second highest death toll at 21,067, maintained some tight restrictions on movement, while Denmark, one of the first European countries to shut down, will reopen day care centres and schools for children in first to fifth grade on April 15th.

Sweden

The number of deaths in Sweden has passed 1,000, adding to controversy over the Scandinavian country’s decision to ignore the lockdowns being imposed elsewhere, and instead leave schools, bars, cafes and restaurants open to the public. Prime minister Stefan Lofven has said that stricter measures may be needed going forward. In all, 1,033 Swedes have died from Covid-19, official figures showed on Tuesday.

The Czech government will gradually reopen stores and restaurants from April 20th, although people will continue to be required to wear masks.

Thousands of shops across Austria reopened on Tuesday, but the government cautioned that the country was “not out of the woods”.

Austria acted early to shut schools, bars, theatres, restaurants, non-essential shops and other gathering places about four weeks ago. It has told the public to stay home.

The Alpine republic has reported 384 deaths in total, fewer than some larger European countries have been suffering each day. Hospitalisations have stabilised.

India, the world’s second-most populous country after China, extended its nationwide lockdown until May 3th as the number of coronavirus cases crossed 10,000. Neighbours Pakistan and Nepal also extended their curbs.

Russia might need to call in the army to help tackle the crisis, president Vladimir Putin said on Monday. Moscow warned that the capital might run out of hospital beds in coming weeks.

China’s northeastern border province of Heilongjiang saw 79 new cases of imported coronavirus cases on Monday – all Chinese citizens travelling back from Russia, state media said.

As of Tuesday, China had reported 82,249 coronavirus cases and 3,341 deaths. There were no deaths in the past 24 hours.

Health ministers from the Group of 20 major economies will speak by video conference on Sunday to address the outbreak’s impact. – Agencies