On a day the news reported from China was good, there were troubling coronavirus developments elsewhere in the world.
Iraq’s Health Ministry reported the steepest single-day spike in confirmed coronavirus cases since the government began recording cases in late February.
The ministry reported 308 new cases Saturday, one day ahead of celebrations to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Curfew hours had been relaxed during the month of fasting, which contributed to higher daily rates of infection.
According to ministry figures, more than 4,200 people have tested positive for the virus in Iraq. At least 152 people have died.
Roads have been clogged with traffic and supermarkets and shops have been packed with people preparing for the celebrations, likely contributing to the increase in infections.
Italy, one of the hardest-hit nations, reported 669 new cases of COVID-19, two-thirds of them in the northern region of Lombardy, which has been the hardest-hit since the outbreak began.
Figures from the most recent 24-hour period since Friday evening saw 119 deaths registered. Officially, Italy has 32,735 deaths from COVID-19.
According to Health Ministry data, the latest cases raised the nation’s overall tally of confirmed coronavirus cases to 229,327. All of Italy’s regions, with the exception of Lombardy, registered no more than a few dozen new cases each on Saturday, and many regions had numbers of new infections in the single digits.
Eager to revive tourism, the government has said people will be allowed to resume travel between regions starting June 3, but travel restrictions could remain if there’s an uptick of infections.
A country hit even harder than Italy, Brazil, has prohibited most foreigners from entering the country for another 30 days.
The country is home to the third-highest number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the world after the United States and Russia.
Commercial traffic is not affected by the measure and Brazilians and local residents will be allowed to enter.
Brazil has reported more than 330,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 21,000 deaths. Experts consider those numbers under counts because of the widespread
In Germany, more than 40 people have tested positive for the coronavirus after a church service in Frankfurt, a health official said.
Rene Gottschalk, the head of the city’s health office, told news agency dpa most aren’t too ill and only one is in a hospital.
The deputy head of the Evangelical Christian Baptist congregation, which held the service, says it took place on May 10. He says the community had complied with hygiene rules set by authorities for the resumption of religious services.
In Spain, on a day right-wing protesters held in-car protests against social-distancing policies, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the nation will reopen its borders to foreign tourists in July.
Sánchez also announced plans to declare 10 days of national mourning for the thousands of Spaniards who have died from the pandemic.
Spain’s tourism sector has been grounded since the government declared a state of emergency to fight the pandemic in March, halting international travel and shuttering hotels.
Spain receives more than 80 million visitors each year. The tourism industry represents 12% of Spain’s GDP and employs 2.6 million people. Its economic importance is even greater on Spain’s Canary and Balearic Islands.
There have been more than 28,000 confirmed deaths in Spain from the virus, the fourth highest total behind the United States, Britain and Italy.
And in Russia, there were 9,434 new cases of COVID-19.
The figures come after several days of daily increases below 9,000, but the count is lower than the more than 10,000 daily cases recorded earlier in the month.
Total cases in Russia now stand at 335,882 with 3,388 deaths, according to the national coronavirus task force and tally by Johns Hopkins. There were 139 deaths recorded over the past day. On Friday, Russia reported 150 deaths, its highest one-day toll.
Russia’s comparatively low mortality rate has raised eyebrows in the West, with some suggesting the country’s government may be underreporting virus-related deaths and manipulating the statistics.
Russian officials deny the allegations and attribute the low numbers to the effectiveness of the measures taken to curb the spread of the outbreak.
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