Spain moves to extend state of emergency as virus death toll rises

Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez said Sunday he would ask parliament to extend a state of emergency until April 11 in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus for the nation of around 46 million people.
The country recorded 394 new deaths caused by the pandemic, rising to 1,720, a 32% increase over the previous day. The number of confirmed cases of the virus rose to 28,572.
The nationwide 15-day state of emergency, announced on March 14, bars people from leaving home except for buying food or seeking medical care. Sanchez said his cabinet would on Tuesday approve the request to extend the state of emergency for another 15 days. He also said that regional governments will be given powers to oversee private care homes.
“I know it is a drastic measure, but experts agree that it is an effective measure in the fight against coronavirus,” he said after a video conference with the heads of the country’s regional governments.
“We hope that with this measure, which is so drastic, so dramatic, so hard, which without a doubt has consequences on our families, we can bend the (growth) curb of coronavirus”, he added.
Spain is Europe’s worst-hit country after Italy. Many patients were moved between centres due to a lack of beds in the hospitals, which are near capacity.
Authorities have called up 52,000 extra workers, including 14,000 retired doctors and nurses, to help the health service. Around 2,850 soldiers have been mobilised to disinfect airports and ports.
“We have yet to receive the impact of the strongest, most damaging wave, which will test our material and moral capacities to the limit, as well as our spirit as a society”, Sanchez said.
China’s Wuhan region, where the coronavirus first emerged in December, saw zero local infections for the third consecutive day.