spain has overtaken italy and its total
number of confirmed coronavirus cases
meaning it is now fighting the second
biggest outbreak in the world the latest
figures show Spain now has nearly one
hundred and eighteen thousand infections
the death toll in Spain is still behind
Italy though 932 people have died in
Spain in the past 24 hours that is
slightly fewer than yesterday it brings
the total number of deaths there to
almost 11,000 lives
Italy's death toll has reached almost
14,000 while in France more than 5000
people have died the United States has
the world's highest number of cases with
nearly a quarter of a million confirmed
infections just under half of the
country's deaths have been in new york
all this comes as the number of people
around the world infected with covert 19
passes 1 million that's according to a
tally being recorded by Johns Hopkins
University in the US and let's just show
you what those figures look like this
graph shows infections from the start of
March China way ahead but there you can
see Italy watch it closely we think to
second place by the middle of March
Spain overtakes around to go third but
it's the rate of infections in the US
which sees a dramatic increase by the
end of the month we would take you to
Washington to hear from our
correspondent shortly first though more
on the situation in Europe Spain's
Health Ministry saying the rates at
which new people are being infected is
continuing to stabilize Alina mendelian
número de castles the increase in the
number of cases today is 7% compared to
yesterday which confirms this trend that
we've been seeing these days of
reduction of the rate of increase and
the same conclusion is derived when we
study hospitalized cases and cases
admitted to intensive care units let's
take you to a Europe correspondent gavin
lee who joins us now from brussels so
it's a bit of a mixed picture in spain
they're given with the rate of reduction
in infections decreasing it seems yeah I
mean it's alarming figure isn't it it's
the second highest figure released for
any country in a single day the death
toll 932 people in the last 24 hours
confirmed as being a fatality of
coronavirus and optimism we just heard
from Maria
Jose Sierra who is the country's
emergency health director who's the
stand-in director because the previous
emergency health director has
coronavirus and Nestor recovering in
isolation that there is a 7% drop it's a
percent increase rate of spread to 7,000
cases in the last 24 hours
go back a week or so there was a 19%
spread so a significant of the past week
but just to put into context you said a
second ago Spain overtaking it to me for
the first time hundred and seventeen
thousand total cases in Spain 115
thousand in Italy we are going to get
those figures for Italy later tonight
it's always around five o'clock in the
evening so that means that we expect
Italy will go back above Spain but in
terms of the comparison here I think go
if you compare the last seven days Spain
has had 67 thousand new cases in a week
Italy has had around 30 thousand in that
types of Spain has double the rate and
just as well we've heard from the
Ministry of Health we also heard from
the Guara Seville the Civil Guard in
Spain to say that they've given out more
than 5,200 fines in the past few days
for people still not sticking to the
strict confinement measures things like
walking fake pets they've said to try to
justify reasons for being out and about
pets that didn't exist going to friends
houses for something to eat and refusing
to comply with the with the police as
well Kevin while we talk about the data
and look at graphs it's always
interesting everyday to compare them but
the human suffering at the moment across
Europe is just incredible and we have to
think as well about those health care
workers in Spain and in Italy how are
they coping particularly in Spain with
these kind of numbers well if you look
at the numbers of deaths first of all
and the biggest figure of fatalities in
Spain for that for the death toll 10,000
935 people killed of that death toll
more than half are in the Madrid greater
region and that's a big worry for the
authorities there we're seeing a similar
picture actually in Paris and in and
around Madrid the long body region in
Italy those big cities where plans are
in place to stop taking people to the
rural areas the the communities that can
cope a little better but courses at
Makhan ripple effect of that that risk
of spread just to quickly mention that
the French Senora for example it's
Easter weekend Easter holiday that
starts this weekend the police are all
over roads bridges mow toys out of Paris
Leon Lille the main cities because they
want people to stay home they have given
out more than 360,000 fines in the past
two weeks there is one country who's
gone a step further the Dutch the
Netherlands government have put or the
authorities there four people in prison
what's called Corona coughing basically
deliberately coughing and spitting at
the authorities or people in the street
claiming they've got coronavirus prison
sentences for four people
Gavin thanks for joining us with that
all the news there from across Europe Oh
Gavin mentioned the picture in France
and mentioned that those are police and
France are stepping up their spot-checks
particularly around Paris so many people
like to leave Paris for the traditional
Easter holidays that start today but
Paris has been badly hit by coronavirus
and what the police are trying to do is
stop the spread to other parts of the
country
here's Hugh Schofield in France if
you're a French family and you're hoping
to take off for the Easter break maybe
to visit grandparents tam here in the
provinces then the message from the
French government is quite clear think
again as their school of
but technically today is the start in
the Paris region of the Easter holidays
and normally the motorways would right
now be crammed with vehicles heading for
the countryside or the seaside packed
trains too but the chief of police in
Paris has deployed 8,000 officers to
check on people leaving the city and
he's promised a policy of zero tolerance
we'll be there at the start of your
journey he said we'll be there during
your journey and we'll be there at your
destination
it's a tough message prompted by the
knowledge that after nearly three weeks
the policy of confinement is having
psychological effects on people
particularly on Parisians living in
their small Paris apartments and the bad
news is it's not gonna end anytime soon
officially the confinement the lockdown
ends on April the 15th but with
infection rates showing no signs of
slowing down everybody knows that the
period could be longer maybe much longer
Hugh Scofield there in France