EU emerges from lockdown as global virus cases top 3.6m

ROME: Millions of Europeans emerged with relief from coronavirus confinement on Monday, with hard-hit Italy leading the way out of the world´s longest lockdown.

At least 3.6 million people are now known to have been infected, but US President Donald Trump offered hope for an end to the pandemic, saying he believed there would be a vaccine by year´s end. Around 251,000 people have died since the coronavirus emerged in China late last year and swept across the globe, given wings by the network of air routes that in normal times keep the modern world ticking. On Monday at least 3,000 perished due to the disease.

Lockdowns imposed on half of the planet have derailed economies, and politicians are now grappling with how to get the wheels turning again without sparking a second wave of infections. Italy second only to the United States in its Covid-19 death toll and the first to impose a national lockdown was gingerly emerging into the spring sunshine on Monday, with construction sites and factories resuming work. Restaurants reopened for takeaway orders, but bars and ice cream parlours will remain shut. The use of public transport is being discouraged and everyone will have to wear masks in indoor public spaces.

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 247,503 people since the outbreak first emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Monday. More than 3,521,600 cases were registered in 195 countries and territories. Of these, at least 1,073,568 are now considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are testing only the most serious cases.

The United States has the highest number of total deaths with 67,682 out of 1,158,041 cases. At least 180,152 have been declared recovered. Italy has the second highest toll with 28,884 deaths out of 210,717 cases, followed by Britain with 28,446 deaths from 186,599 cases, Spain 25,428 deaths and 218,011 cases and France with 24,895 deaths and 168,693 cases.

Europe has a total of 143,981 deaths from 1,562,776 cases, the United States and Canada have 71,456 deaths and 1,217,515 cases, LatinAmerica and the Caribbean have 13,877 deaths and 257,988 cases, Asia has 9,235 deaths and 244,381 cases, the Middle East has 7,025 deaths and 186,403 cases, Africa has 1,806 deaths from 44,391 cases, and Oceania 123 deaths from 8,153 cases.

Russia registered a near record in new daily coronavirus cases on Monday as total infections surpassed 145,000, cementing its position as the top reporter of new cases in Europe. Health officials reported 10,581 new infections over the last 24 hours, only 52 less than Sunday´s record, and bringing Russia´s total to 145,268 cases and 1,356 deaths.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out his plan to ease a nationwide coronavirus lockdown next Sunday, media reports said, as new guidance emerged on how to maintain social distancing in workplaces. Stay-at-home orders imposed in late March are up for review on Thursday in Britain, one of the worst hit countries in the Covid-19 pandemic, but the government has already said the measures will be eased only gradually.

Iran on Monday reopened mosques in parts of the country deemed at low risk from coronavirus, as it said almost 80,000 people hospitalised with the illness had recovered and been released. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said 74 new fatalities brought to 6,277 the total number officially recorded in Iran since it reported its first cases in mid-February.

Italy recorded 49.4 per cent more deaths across the country in March than the average for the month over the previous five years, official data showed on Monday. The number of deaths across Italy from the day the first novel coronavirus case was recorded on February 20 rose by 38.7 per cent, figures from the ISTAT statistics agency and the ISS public health institute showed.