Health and Science

Italy's daily coronavirus death toll drops to lowest in 2 weeks, Singapore sees biggest case jump

Key Points
  • China's National Health Commission (NHC) reported 30 new cases, and three more deaths as of April 4.
  • Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, warned the hardest hit U.S. hotspots could reach their mortality peaks, simultaneously, in the next week. 
  • U.S. President Donald Trump announced that 1,000 military personnel are deploying to New York City to help fight the coronavirus. 
A worker wearing protective garments sanitizes the Duomo square, during the coronavirus disease outbreak in central Milan, Italy.
Flavio Lo Scalzo | REUTERS

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  • Global cases: At least 1,216,422
  • Global deaths: At least 65,652
  • Top 5 countries: United States (312,245), Spain (126,168), Italy (124,632),  Germany (96,092), and France (90,848). 

All times below are in Beijing time.

8:14 pm: Netherlands death toll rises by 115 to 1,776

The coronavirus death toll in the Netherlands rose by 115 overnight to 1,776, health officials said Sunday. Positive cases went up by 1,224 to 17,851. 

7:47 pm: Spain's death toll rises, but pace slows

Spain's death toll grew by 674 on Sunday to 12,418, the second-highest coronavirus death toll worldwide after Italy. But the figure was a decrease from Saturday's toll of 809 and from Thursday's record daily death count of 950, health authorities said. Spain's cases rose on Sunday to 130,759.

7:21 pm: Singapore sees 120 new cases, biggest single-day jump

Singapore registered 120 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the city-state's biggest daily jump, its health ministry said. Singapore has 1,309 confirmed cases and six deaths from the virus. Sunday's increase in case numbers is a 60% jump compared to the number of new cases counted on Saturday, which was 75, and the previous largest rise.  

6:14 pm: Indonesia requires all citizens to wear masks

Indonesia is requiring all its citizens to wear cloth masks when leaving their homes, the country's health ministry said Sunday, adding that surgical and N95 masks are to be reserved to medical workers. The Southeast Asian nation of 264 million has 2,273 confirmed cases of the virus and 198 deaths, which rose by 181 and 7 overnight, respectively.  

6:04 pm: Iran coronavirus death toll hits 3,603

Iran's death toll from the coronavirus hit 3,603 on Sunday, an increase of 150 from the previous day, a health ministry spokesperson said. The country is the worst-hit in the Middle East, with 58,226 confirmed cases so far. 

4:14 pm: South Sudan reports first case

South Sudan reported its first confirmed coronavirus case Sunday, which the country's vice president said was a 29-year-old female who had come from Ethiopia and was being treated in isolation. 

4:10 pm: Malaysia reports 179 new cases, 4 deaths

Malaysia reported 179 new coronavirus cases on Sunday and four deaths, bringing the totals for cases and deaths in the country to 3,662 and 61, respectively. The country of 32 million has the highest number of confirmed cases in the region. 

3:17 pm: Tokyo sees 130 new cases, biggest one-day jump

Japanese capital Tokyo saw its largest daily jump in coronavirus cases with 130 new cases announced Sunday, according to Japan's public broadcaster NHK. The city now had more than 1,000 positive cases, out of some 3,000 confirmed cases across the country and 77 deaths. 

3:16 pm: Greece quarantines second migrant camp after confirmed case

Greece quarantined its second mainland migrant camp on Sunday, the Malakasa camp, after a 53-year-old Afghan man tested positive for the coronavirus, the country's migration ministry said.

The man was transferred to a hospital in Athens and his contacts will be tested, the ministry said, as it tries to trace the path of the virus. 

More than 100,000 migrants live in camps across Greece. The country had 1,673 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Sunday morning and 68 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. 

2:44 pm: Iranian president says 'low-risk' economic activities to resume April 11

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that "low-risk economic activities" would pick up again from April 11, even as Iran continues to struggle with the Middle East's worst coronavirus outbreak.

"Under the supervision of the health ministry, all those low-risk economic activities will resume from Saturday," Rouhani said on local television, according to a translation by Reuters. He added that two-thirds of all government employees would work from their offices from Saturday, a decision he said did not contradict the health ministry's stay-at-home orders. 

Iran had more than 55,700 confirmed coronavirus cases and 3,452 deaths as of Sunday.

2:29 pm: Morocco will release 5,654 prisoners amid  outbreak

Morocco will release thousands of prisoners in order to protect them from a coronavirus outbreak, the country's government said, as its King Mohammed VI pardoned 5,654 prisoners who were selected on the basis of their age, poor health, time served and good conduct, Reuters reported Sunday.

Morocco has 919 confirmed coronavirus cases and 59 deaths.

12:50 pm: Thailand reports 102 new cases, 3 more deaths

Thailand reported 102 new cases to a total of 2,169 cases, according to its health ministry. It had 3 more deaths.

The country banned all incoming passengers flights effective Saturday, in a bid to curb the rise in imported cases. — Weizhen Tan

11:35 am: Italy's daily death toll drops to lowest in two weeks

Italy on Saturday reported its lowest daily rise in COVID-19 deaths in nearly two weeks, according to a Reuters report. It also said the number of patients in intensive care fell for the first time.

However, new cases rose by nearly 4,805 on Saturday — slightly higher than previous days, and officials urged people not to ease up on the lockdown measures they said were starting to show results, according to the report.

The total number of infections in the country was at 124,632, with overall fatalities at 15,362, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. — Weizhen Tan

10:20 am: United Airlines cuts flights to New York

United Airlines said it will drastically cut flights to two New York-area airports. Starting Sunday, it will reduce its 157 daily flights to Newark and New York LaGuardia to 17 a day, according to a statement from its Chief Operations Officer Greg Hart.

The cuts will be in effect at least three weeks, the statement said. "As the situation in New York and New Jersey worsens, we are taking another major step at Newark and LaGuardia to help keep our employees safe and play our part in helping to mitigate the spread of the outbreak in the Tri-State area," Hart said.

New York has been the most affected state amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the number of confirmed cases nearly doubling since last Friday. There's a total of 113,704 cases and 3,565 deaths in the state as of Saturday, according to the governor's office. — Weizhen Tan

9:50 am: Mexico reports jump of 202 new cases, 19 new deaths

The number of new cases in Mexico increased by 202 to a total of 1,890 cases, according to its health ministry. The number of deaths jumped by 19 to 79 fatalities in total. 

Its Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatel blamed decades of poor eating habits in the country, causing obesity, diabetes and other conditions that made its people more vulnerable to the coronavirus, according to a Reuters report. — Weizhen Tan

9:40 am: South Korea's new cases jump by 81

New cases in South Korea jumped by 81 as of Sunday morning, and its number of deaths increased by six, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The country's total now stands at 10,237 cases, and 183 fatalities. The government said Saturday that it would extend its social distancing measures by another two weeks in an attempt to curb the number of new infections to around 50 a day, according to a Reuters report. — Weizhen Tan

9:30 am: Mainland China reports 30 new cases, 3 more deaths

China's National Health Commission (NHC) reported 30 new cases, and three more deaths as of April 4. Of those, it said 25 were "imported," or attributed to people traveling from overseas.

That brings the country's total to 81,669 confirmed cases, and 3,329 deaths, according to the NHC.

Separately, there were 47 new asymptomatic cases, where people tested positive for the virus but did not show any symptoms. China started including asymptomatic cases in its daily reports starting April 1. That brings its total number of asymptomatic cases under medical observation to 1,024, the NHC said. — Weizhen Tan

All times below are in Eastern time.

5:43 pm: Dr. Birx warns three US hotspots will all reach peak mortality in the next week

Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, warned the hardest hit U.S. hotspots could reach their mortality peaks, simultaneously, in the next week. 

"The Detroit area, the New York area, the Louisiana area ... They're all on the upside of the curve of mortality," Birx said at a White House briefing. "By the predictions that are in that healthdata.org, they're predicting in those three hotspots, all of them hitting together in the next six to seven days." 

New York leads the country in terms of coronavirus cases, with more than 113,000 confirmed cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. At least 63,000 of those cases are in the New York City area. Michigan has more than 14,000 confirmed cases of the virus, and Louisiana has more than 12,000. 

"What we're seeing today are the people who were infected two or three weeks ago," Birx said. "If mitigation in New York worked, and we believe it is working, the cases are going to start to go down, but the mortality will be a lag behind that because of the co-morbidities and other conditions." —Sara Salinas

4:40 pm: Trump says 1,000 military personnel are deploying to New York City

President Donald Trump announced that 1,000 military personnel are deploying to New York City to help fight the coronavirus. 

"We're taking people now out of our military. We've been doing it but now we're doing it on a larger basis," the president said at a White House press briefing. —Emma Newburger

3:59 pm: Coronavirus patients spend night on Navy hospital ship meant for non-infected New York patients

Multiple coronavirus patients spent Friday night aboard the USNS Comfort after federal officials said the Navy hospital ship was only supposed to treat non-infected patients. The Comfort is supposed to only receive patients who don't have the virus to relieve stress on the city's hospitals. Hospital leaders in New York City, however, have criticized the Comfort's deployment as "a joke" for not accepting COVID-19 patients and failing to provide tangible relief to strained hospitals. The 1,000-bed hospital ship, which arrived in New York Monday, has treated 27 patients as of Saturday, according to a Navy spokesperson. —Will Feuer

Read CNBC's coverage from the U.S. overnight: Birx warns mortality will peak in NY, New Orleans and Detroit next week