Glimmer of hope as coronavirus infections and deaths in Spain and Italy show signs of stabilising
James Mates
EUROPE EDITOR, ITV
30 March 2020 at 6:35pm
When the numbers dying stay stubbornly high, it is difficult to believe that things are getting better.... That seems to be happening now in both Spain and Italy, with the really good news in Italy that new coronavirus infections have fallen significantly in the last 24 hours.
SPAIN has seen another painful day with 812 deaths, bringing their total to 7,340.
It is a terrifyingly large number, but slightly lower than Sunday. Talking to doctors there on Monday morning, there is a belief that they are "flattening the curve", that they are seeing fewer new patients, and that the lockdown is having an effect.
Spain locked down several days after Italy, so real improvements there may lag behind the Italian ones... ITALY saw an identical death toll to Spain at 812, but the numbers of new infections has fallen to 4,050, well below Monday's figure of 5,217 and the lowest we have seen in 10 days.
A warning about both these numbers: deaths are a lagging indicator, reflecting the numbers being infected days, or even weeks, ago, and infection rates are highly dependent on who you are testing and where.
So caution as always.
More here
https://www.itv.com/news/2020-03-30/glimmer-of-hope-as-coronavirus-infections-and-deaths-in-spain-and-italy-show-signs-of-stabilising-writes-james-mates/