Spain’s two largest cities remain in coronavirus related lockdowns Sunday as the rest of the country begins slowly reopening.
Spain, which currently has recorded the fourth-highest death toll due to the coronavirus in the world, reported a death toll of under 100 people Sunday – the lowest recorded since its lockdown began in mid-March.
Italy will also begin opening up this week, and tourists will be allowed into the country beginning June 3.
In Turkey, senior citizens were allowed to leave their homes Sunday, as part of new guidelines which will allow those over 65, who are at a higher risk of severe infection from the virus, to go outside for six hours on Sundays.
Britain announced that it has hired nearly all of the contact tracers it plans to employ to trace the virus’ spread when the country eases lockdown measures.
But Prime Ministers of Britain and Italy warned over the weekend that their citizens cannot depend on a vaccine being developed in the immediate future.
“There remains a very long way to go, and I must be frank that a vaccine might not come to fruition,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote in a British newspaper Sunday.
Meanwhile in Thailand, malls were reopened Sunday for the first time since March as the country reported only single digit increases in new COVID-19 cases.
The global infection and death tolls for coronavirus continue to creep upward.
More than 4.6 million people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus and more than 312,000 have died.
The U.S. continues to lead the world in COVID-19 infections and deaths with nearly 1.5 million cases and almost 89,000 deaths.
A World Health Organization modeling study warns that nearly a quarter-billion people will eventually be infected by the virus, and that 150,000 people in Africa could die if urgent action is not taken. The study, published in the journal BMJ Global Health, projects lower infection rates and deaths in other parts of the world, such as Europe and the U.S.
