Spain PM plans to extend COVID lockdown after spike in deaths

Despite the World Health Organisations warnings to not rush into easing the Coronavirus restrictions as it could lead to a resurgence of the disease some of the affected countries have started to restart their economiesSpain which was also planning to ease the lockdown when the daily deaths dropped below 400 had to reconsid its plan after recording a spike for the second day on Wednesday Another 435 people died in the past 24 hours bringing the overall death toll to 21717 said the authoritiesPedro Sanchez Spain PMSpain has suffered the thirdhighest number of deaths in the world after the US and Italy with infections now hitting 208000 cases health ministry figures showed Mondays figure of 399 deaths was the lowest in four weeks but a day later it rose to 430 with officials explaining the numbers tend to go up slightly on Tuesday following delays in receiving regional data on weekend deathsThe March 14 lockdown has been twice extended with Spain Prime Minister Pedro Saacutenchez seeking parliament goahead to prolong nations state of emergency until May 9 We must avoid missteps If we stay on top of the virus and our health system maintains and reinforces that impression then we will propose another step BBC quoted him as sayingA worker on a construction site on Wednesday in Cenon France as works resume after stopping several weeks long lines built up outside the few McDonalds drivethrus that started serving customers again more than 10 million employees in France one out of every two in the private sector have been laid off during the lockdown PicAFPBut from Sunday the conditions are to be eased for youngsters in Spain who have not been allowed out of the house for nearly six weeks under one of the most restrictive lockdowns in the world From April 26 those under 14 will be allowed to go for a walk with one of their parents or accompany them on trips out to buy food medicine or go to the bankAddressing MPs at Wednesdays parliamentary session Saacutenchez said moves to ease the lockdown would likely begin in the second half of May The second half of May offers the prospect of a scalingback of the lockdown of phase two of the fight when the restrictions will be modified he saidBut the lockdown will not be lifted until we are prepared for it because we are not going to take any risks he said insisting that any optimism must be tempered by prudenceWe must be incredibly careful in this phase he said The scalingback period will be slow and gradual precisely because it has to be safeRestrictions were also being eased in Denmark Austria and France In the US too some states were relaxing restrictions The pandemic has infected over 25 million people and killed over 177000 around the worldIran and Iraq continue to report new deathsIraq which had on Tuesday partly eased the lockdown restrictions recorded one more fatality bringing the tally to 83 on Wednesday The Health Ministry said the total number of cases reached 1602 with 28 new cases reported Anadolu Agency In Iran where local shops were reportedly allowed to open from April 20 but with social distancing in place reported 94 new deaths on Wednesday But the cases of infections was on the way down it said Health ministry said the fatalities detected in the past 24 hours took Irans overall toll to 5391 and infections climbed to 85996 with 1194 new cases If we arrogantly think that the job is done and we have won then this would be the biggest problem that could affect us President Hassan Rouhani said Iran has struggled to contain the outbreak Despite that Iran has allowed many businesses to reopen since April 11 after shutting most down in midMarch to prevent the spread of the diseaseCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever