Italy says its coronavirus infections have topped 10,000 and deaths have risen to 631 overall
A tourist wearing a respiratory mask as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the new Covid-19 walks past the closed Colisseum monument in Rome on March 10, 2020, as Italy imposed unprecedented national restrictions on its 60 million people on March 10 to control the deadly coronavirus.
The rapid spread of the new illness forced the Italian government on Tuesday to impose a nationwide ban on public gathering and travel restrictions until April 3.Health officials warned over the weekend that hospitals in the Lombardy region around Milan where three-fourths of the deaths have occurred were running out of beds.The overwhelming majority of the fatalities and infections were still being recorded in the north, with poorer southern regions largely spared.
Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour made the announcement in a televised news conference. It represented an 18 percent increase in deaths from the day before and 12 percent more confirmed cases. But UN rapporteur Javaid Rehman said only those serving sentences of less than 5 years had been freed while political prisoners and others charged with heavier sentences linked to their participation in protest marches remained in jail.
The World Health Organization warned there is a "very real" threat of a pandemic, but its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the planet was "not at the mercy" of an illness that has killed more than 4,000 people so far. While Hubei's 56 million people remain under quarantine, China is slowly easing restrictions in other parts of the country, with people returning to work and some schools reopening.
In Washington, President Donald Trump said he would propose "very substantial" economic measures to Congress on Tuesday, adding that the coronavirus has "blindsided the world."Chief among the complaints has been the lack of testing caused by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developing its own flawed kits.
The central European country of 38 million people has reported 17 cases of coronavirus. No one has died from the virus in Poland. The run on stock market prices has robbed Trump of one of his main talking points ahead of the November presidential election. On Monday, passengers were taken ashore from a cruise ship docked in California after at least 21 people on board were diagnosed with the virus.South Korea, one of the worst-affected countries in the coronavirus epidemic outside China, on Tuesday reported fewer than 150 new cases for the first time in two weeks.
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