Coronavirus latest: Mexico’s death toll surpasses Spain’s

• Mexico has overtaken Spain in total coronavirus deaths 
• With rising infections and fatalities in the United States, Brazil, the Americas remain the epicenter of the pandemic 

All updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC/GMT) 

03:45 Germany reported 466 new cases of the coronavirus, taking the national total tally up to 194,725, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The state of North Rhine-Westphalia reported the largest number of cases.

RKI reported 12 new deaths from the virus. Germany’s total death toll from the virus is now 8,985. RKI said there were sporadic outbreaks in nursing homes, hospitals and refugee facilities.

03:20 Mainland China registered three new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, compared to three cases a day earlier, the National Health Commission has said in a statement.

Two of the new infections were imported cases while one was reported in Beijing. No new deaths were reported.

China also registered two new asymptomatic patients, down from three the day before.

Mainland China has reported a total of 83,537 confirmed coronavirus cases and 4,634 deaths, the commission said.

02:30 After three months of closures due to the coronavirus, Egypt has reopened the famous Pyramids of Giza to visitors.

“There are many safety measures before the pyramids can be entered,” travel guide Fatma Bayoumy told the news agency AFP. Everything must be disinfected — “including the visitors and their bags,” she added.

Dozens of foreign tourists were already roaming the pyramid complex shortly after it reopened. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo has also reopened.

Egypt hopes that the opening of the tourist sites will help to boost the ailing tourism sector. On Tuesday, the government eased travel restrictions and opened up air traffic for international flights.

Egypt had its first confirmed case of coronavirus on February 14.

As a result, museums, archaeological sites, shops, cafes and restaurants in the country were shut down.

Egypt has registered more than 68,000 coronavirus infections and almost 3,000 deaths.

One-fifth of Egypt’s gross domestic product comes from the tourism industry. Egypt’s tourism industry has coped with many upheavals in recent years, including the political instability following the fall of the long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Even so, the country set a new record last year with 13.6 million tourists.

Visitors had been barred from the pyramids for three months

02:10 Australian police set up checkpoints in Melbourne to contain new coronavirus hot spots in the country’s second-largest city.

Images published by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on showed police stopping cars after 36 suburbs in Melbourne went into lockdown following a spike in new infections.

“Over 300,000 Australians … are going into a difficult situation, which we’ve all been through,” Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters, referring to the residents of the affected suburbs. “We know we can get through it but nevertheless it’s a huge imposition on their lives.”

Australia has fared better than many countries in the pandemic, with around 8,000 cases, 104 deaths and fewer than 400 active cases.

01:20 The United States reported over 52,000 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, according to a tally by John Hopkins University. The number is a new one-day record.

The tally showed 52,898 new infections in the US, bringing the total number of cases there to 2,682,270 since the outbreak began.

Another 706 COVID-19 fatalities increased the death toll to 128,028.

In recent days, the number of new daily infections in the US has been around 40,000.

Some US states are back to tightening rules to prevent the spread of the coronavirus

00:09 The Americas are still the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with the United States and Brazil leading the globe in overall infections and fatalities from COVID-19. On Wednesday, Brazil hit the tragic milestone of 60,000 coronavirus deaths. In the US, governors of the states hit hardest by the virus have made moves to halt or reverse steps to ease restrictions originally put in place to slow the spread of the virus.  

“The spread of this virus continues at a rate that is particularly concerning,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom. The governor ordered his state to close all bars, ban indoor dining at restaurants, and restrict other indoor operations for over 70% of the state’s population.

Within the US, the national epicenter has progressed the Northeast to California, Arizona and New Mexico in the West as well as Texas, Florida and Georgia.

00:03 Mexico reported 5,681 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours along with 741 more fatalities, bringing the country’s total cases to 231,770 and total deaths to 28,510.

The latest deaths put Mexico ahead of Spain, a former coronavirus hot spot, in terms of overall fatalities from the virus. On Wednesday, Spain reported a total of 28,363 deaths related to COVID-19.

00:00 Catch up on yesterday’s coronavirus news here.

In reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, unless otherwise specified, DW uses figures provided by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Coronavirus Resource Center in the United States. JHU updates figures in real-time, collating data from world health organizations, state and national governments, and other public official sources, all of whom have their own systems for compiling information.

Germany’s national statistics are compiled by its public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). These figures depend on data transmission from state and local levels and are updated around once a day, which can lead to deviation from JHU.

kp/sms (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)

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