(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 SlumpEurope’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 …read more
Source:: Yahoo News
