Last Updated on March 30, 2020, 5:01 AM AST by Anthony Morris
The tally of Coronavirus deaths in Italy and Spain have risen above 17,000.
This has forced Europe to focus on further restricting the movement of people and preventing a health-care collapse.
Italy has now become the country with the highest number of reported cases of death due to COVID-19. The country has recorded around 756 new fatalities on Sunday.
The Health Ministry of Spain has said that 838 people had died from the deadly virus over the last 24 hours. This count is the highest number of deaths recorded by Spain in a day.
Italy and Spain together have over more than five times the total number of deaths reported in China due to the novel coronavirus, although the outbreak had originated from China.
The number of patients in intensive care units in Spain has already surpassed the national capacity of around 4,400 beds.
This situation has forced the health-care workers to decide who they should treat first.
The officials have said that the increase in the number of deaths and infections are very high and that it brings attention to the suffering and risks in the hospitals.
Health Ministry spokesman Fernando Simon said that it seems like the evolution has stabilized and could even be falling. Still, the basic problem is to make sure that the Intense Care Units are not saturated.
The death roll in Italy has risen to around 10,779, and the number of infected cases has approached 100,000.
Meanwhile, Spain has recorded almost around 6,528 deaths due to the virus.
It is a noteworthy fact that the pace of increases in deaths slowed for the fourth day in Spain, and that gives a little ray of hope.
Deaths in Italy have also fallen for the second day.
Although, another noteworthy fact is that the pace of new infections has also slowed down in both Italy as well as Spain.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
