Europe’s Virus Deaths Fall in Signal for Leaders Eager to Reopen
Europe’s Virus Spread Slows Ahead of Next Steps to Relax Curbs
(Bloomberg) --
Italy and France reported the fewest coronavirus deaths in weeks and Germany’s sick beds continued to empty, providing welcome signs for European leaders ahead of wider steps to restart the economy.
Spain, which has the most cases in Europe and remains on an almost-total lockdown, reported 367 new deaths on Friday, the least since March 21, though confirmed cases rose by the most in almost three weeks. Italy’s daily death toll was the lowest since March 17 and France’s declined to the lowest in almost four weeks.
With European governments eager to ease confinement measures that have crushed the economy, the latest data also hinted at the volatility that makes relaxing restrictions difficult. Italy’s new cases reported on Friday outstripped the number of recovered patients, reversing a trend begun the day before.
“We have to maintain our vigilance,” Jerome Salomon, France’s director general for health, said at a briefing. “The epidemic is not over.”
In Germany, about 103,000 of some 148,000 people reported to have contracted the virus have recovered. Europe’s largest economy kept its so-called reproduction number below 1, according to official data, meaning the number of new Covid-19 infections is declining.
“Testing is one of the keys to why we have been able to come through this crisis in relatively good shape until now,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday on broadcaster ZDF. “We tested very widely from the start and therefore had a very early picture of the development in Germany.”
German Slump
Europe’s more than 110,000 deaths in the pandemic account for almost 60% of the worldwide total but as new infections decline, regional leaders are starting to loosen social-distancing curbs to try to revive business activity. Vice President Mike Pence said he thinks the U.S. “will have this coronavirus epidemic behind us” by the Memorial Day holiday on May 25.
European economic woes were on display at a European Union summit this week where EU leaders failed to agree on a longer-term recovery plan. Afterward, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced plans to expand the budget deficit by 55 billion euros ($59 billion) in emergency spending. Germany’s economy is expected to shrink by 6.3% in 2020, the worst contraction since at least 1950, Handelsblatt reported, citing draft government projections.
Read more: Italy Seeks $59 Billion Extra Deficit to Avoid Meltdown
Italian civil defense authorities reported 420 deaths linked to the virus for the latest 24-hour period, compared with 464 the day before, bringing the total to 25,969. Confirmed cases now total 192,994. While 2,922 patients in Italy were listed as recovered, there were 3,021 new cases.
Italy’s shutdown since early March has closed factories, confined people to their homes and brought daily life for 60 million people in the euro area’s third-biggest economy to a near standstill. An initial reopening of businesses is planned for May 4, provided Italians observe protective and social-distancing guidelines. France is working on plans to gradually reopen the economy starting May 11.
Austrian Reopening
Austria’s first round of easing, which started April 14, hasn’t spurred new infections, which have been below 100 for six days in a row. Hospitalizations, including intensive care, have been on a downward trajectory for two weeks.
Spain has yet to publish detailed plans on lifting restrictions that have brought the nation to an almost complete standstill for more than a month. Prime Minster Pedro Sanchez has said a cautious easing may begin next month.
Germany’s new cases and deaths rose the most in nearly a week. There were 2,481 new infections in the 24 hours through Friday morning, bringing the total to 153,129, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Fatalities rose to 5,575 and the death rate — one of the world’s lowest — rose to 3.6%.
After Germany allowed small shops and hardware stores to reopen on Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel repeated her warning of the risks of second-wave infections. Germany is “far from being out of the woods,” she said in a speech to parliament on Thursday.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.