EpidemicsItaly COVID-19 Total Tops 10,000; Funding Grows for Treatments, Vaccines
Italy’s surge of COVID-19 cases continued today in the wake of a national lockdown announced yesterday, as some of the country’s neighbors closed borders and other countries in Europe, such as France, reported similar steep rises.
Italy’s surge of COVID-19 cases continued yesterday in the wake of a national lockdown announced yesterday, as some of the country’s neighbors closed borders and other countries in Europe, such as France, reported similar steep rises.
Meanwhile, more countries—including the Ebola-hit Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—reported their first cases, while cases continued to decline in South Korea, and two groups made announcements about funding to develop treatments and a vaccine.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said in its daily update yesterday that the global total is 113,702 cases, 32,778 have now been reported from outside of China, including 4,105 new illnesses reported yesterday. So far, 109 countries have reported cases. Newly affected countries include Mongolia, which reported a case in its capital in a worker from France and the DRC, a 50-year-old man who arrived in Kinshasa from France.
Italy Cases Top 10,000
Italy’s health ministry yesterday reported 977 new cases, plus 168 more deaths, boosting its totals to 10,149 cases, of which 631 were fatal. The country’s government yesterday announced a nationwide lockdown, the broadest so far of the COVID-19 epidemic, due to an outbreak centered in Lombardy and neighboring regions in the north.
Along with the lockdown, Italy’s government said it would suspend mortgage payments to ease the burden of the new COVID-19 restrictions.
CIDRAP reports that yesterday, three neighboring countries—Slovenia, Malta, and Austria—reported border closures. Slovenia said its closure doesn’t apply to freight, and Malta closed its border with Italy and turned away a cruise ship from Italy. Austria has also banned Italians from entering the country and imposed a 14-day quarantine on Austrians returning from Italy, according to the BBC.
Meanwhile, the pace of new cases continued to accelerate in other European countries. France reported 372 more cases, along with 3 new deaths, raising its respective totals to 1,784 and 33. France’s President Emmanuel Macron yesterday warned the country is at the beginning of its epidemic, and the government announced that the country’s culture minister tested positive for the virus and is self-isolating, Reuters reported.
