Thursday 18 / April / 2024
BRUSSELS: The COVID-19 death toll in Europe continued to climb as the number in France jumped by over 1,400 on Tuesday to pass the 10,000 mark.
With 10,328 deaths, France became the third country in Europe to report over 10,000 deaths after Italy and Spain.
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 72,700 COVID-19 deaths have been reported globally as of Tuesday, of which over 52,800 were registered in Europe.
Record deaths in France
Although France entered its fourth week of lockdown, the COVID-19 pandemic still hit hard in the country. It claimed on Tuesday 1,417 more deaths in hospitals and nursing homes, making the combined fatalities at 10,328.
Data unveiled by Health General Director Jerome Salomon showed a fresh daily record of deaths of 607 in hospital, bringing that total to 7,091. There were also 3,237 deaths in retirement homes, up from Monday's 2,417.
Less than two months after its first COVID-19 death on Feb. 14, France now became the fourth country globally -- after Italy, Spain and the United States -- to report more than 10,000 fatalities.
However, the pressure was easing on intensive care units in the country. Some 30,000 are now receiving treatment in hospitals, including 7,131 who need to be put on a ventilator -- a daily rise of 59 compared with 94 on Monday. Also, 19,337 patients have recovered.
Two worst-hit nations
With over 17,000 fatalities, Italy still has, by far, the world's highest COVID-19 death toll.
By Tuesday, the country has registered a total of 17,127 deaths, out of 135,586 cases, according to figures from the Civil Protection Department.
On a daily basis, the death toll grew by 604 over the last 24 hours, compared to 636 on Monday, and 525 on Sunday.
Nevertheless, there are also some encouraging signs. The number of recoveries in Italy kept increasing, with 1,555 more people cured on a daily basis, totaling 24,392. And the recoveries registered in the last 24 hours were higher than the new active infections.
In neighboring Spain, there were daily increases, however, in both new cases and deaths over the past 24 hours. The new cases increased by 5,478 to 140,510 in total, while the deaths rose by 743 to 13,798.
The new daily death number is higher than 637 deaths reported on Monday and 674 deaths on Sunday. The increase ends a four-day consecutive decline in the new daily deaths in Spain, although Tuesday's increase was attributed to delays in collating the data over the weekend, according to health authorities.
Elsewhere in Europe
Britain on Tuesday announced the highest daily COVID-19 death toll. With 726 deaths, the death toll of those hospitalized in the country reached 6,159 as of Monday afternoon, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.
As of Tuesday morning, the number of confirmed cases in Britain hit 55,242, up 3,634 in the past 24 hours, said the department.
In other developments, the death toll in both Belgium and The Netherlands crossed the 2,000 mark on Tuesday.
Belgium, where the total number of cases has reached 22,194, recorded, over the past 24 hours, 162 new deaths in addition to 241 deaths in nursing homes in Flanders registered between April 1 and April 4, bringing the total fatalities in the country to 2,035.
The death toll in The Netherlands, after reporting a daily high of 234 deaths, reached 2,101, while the total cases grew by 777 to 19,580.
