• April 06, 2020
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European hotspots see slowdown in COVID-19 deaths

Signs of hope are showing in Europe as COVID-19 hotspots record declines in deaths related to the viral disease. Italy, France, and Spain have all seen a reduction in their respective daily death tolls over the past weekend, bringing some much-needed encouragement amid this trying time.

On Sunday, 5 April, Italy recorded 525 deaths – the lowest daily total in over two weeks. As of Monday afternoon, 6 April, Johns Hopkins University has noted 128,948 COVID-19 cases in Italy, with 15,887 deaths.

While Spain has surpassed Italy in the number of infections, the country has also seen a decline in deaths for the third consecutive day yesterday, 5 April. It recorded 674 deaths, bringing its total to 12,418. As of the time of writing, Spain has had a total of 131,646 infections.

France has also reported a sharp drop in deaths on 5 April, with 518 new deaths. This figure is much lower than 1,355 on Thursday, 2 April; 1,120 on Friday, 3 April; and 1,053 on Saturday, 4 April. At least 93,870 have tested positive for the coronavirus in France, 8,078 of which had been fatal.

Italy’s Civil Protection Agency head Angelo Borrelli has cautioned, however, that these pieces of good news should not result in complacency, noting that these “shouldn’t make us drop our guard.”