Spain’s Socialist PM Pushes For Another 2-Week Lockdown Extension As Global COVID-19 Cases Pass 6 Million: Live Updates

Summary:

• Spain pushes for another 2-week lockdown extension
• Country hopes to receive €140 billion from EU rescue fund
• Global COVID-19 cases pass 6 mil
• Russia cases pass 400k
• Iran case total passes 150k
• India reports record jump in new cases after extending lockdown
• China reports new asymptomatic cases tied to German chartered flight

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A day after India extended its lockdown for the fourth time, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is asking parliament to approve one more 15-day extension of Spain’s lockdown – which has already been moderately eased even in some of the worst-hit areas like Madrid  – until June 21 “to finish with the pandemic once and for all.”

Sanchez said he would ask parliament to approve a final two-week extension to the stay at home rule. According to the proposal, a national state of emergency wouldn’t end until June 21, at which time citizens would be allowed to move freely. Beginning July 1, citizens will be able to move across the country, El Pais reports.

Spain’s death toll rose by two on Sunday to 27,127, while the number of COVID-19 infections rose by 96 overnight to 239,429. The country has recently been supplanted in global rankings of the worst outbreaks by Russia and Brazil.

Spain first imposed the state of emergency on March 14, imposing a strict lockdown where people were only allowed to leave their homes to buy food, seek medical care or for work. In the beginning, children were confined inside all day.

Despite opposition to the most recent lockdown extension from conservatives and demonstrations across Spain, a deal struck by Sanchez  with a Catalan separatist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya should guarantee his minority government secures enough support to extend the lockdown.

A recent uptick in recorded deaths was caused by a revision to the official figures. Experts praised Spain’s government for bringing the outbreak to heel weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the global outbreak reached a new milestone Sunday morning, passing 6 million cases a little over a week after passing the 5 million mark. Out-of-control outbreaks in Brazil, Russia and across Latin America have driven the explosion of new cases recently.

In other news pertaining to Spain, Sanchez said he hoped Spain would receive €140 billion ($155.37 billion) from a new EU recovery fund. The EU is set to borrow €750 billion for the fund, which will offer a mix of grants and loans to the bloc’s most hard-hit economies, which include Spain and Italy, two of its largest economies.

Meanwhile, after announcing its latest lockdown extension yesterday, India reported more than 8,000 new coronavirus cases in a single day, another record high, after also posting the deadliest week of the country’s outbreak so far.

Confirmed infections have risen to 182,143, with 5,164 fatalities, including 193 deaths in the past day, according to health officials.

Overall, more than 60% of the virus fatalities have been reported from only two states: Maharashtra, India’s financial hub, and Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. New cases have largely been concentrated in six Indian states, including Delhi, home state of the capital, New Delhi. Delhi on Sunday reported 1,295 new cases of coronavirus, its biggest daily jump so far, bringing the state’s total to 19,844 cases.

Russia reported 9,268 new coronavirus cases Sunday raising its total to 405,843, surpassing 400k. 138 deaths were also recorded, bringing the death toll to 4,693.

Following 2 recent outbreaks, China announced two new confirmed coronavirus cases and four new asymptomatic cases that it allegedly traced back to a chartered flight from Germany. The two confirmed cases in Shandong province on Saturday compared with four cases the day before, data from the country’s health authority showed.

Finally, Iran said its caseload of coronavirus infections passed a grim milestone of 150,000, as the country struggles with what appears to be the beginning of a second wave of infections. The country reported 2,516 new cases on Sunday, bringing the total to 151,466.