Daily COVID-19 updates on March 19

Countries around the world have been beefing up measures to contain the COVID-19 spread, as more than 200,000 cases have been reported globally, with the tally of deaths exceeding 8,000.

Eighty percent of all the cases worldwide were reported in two regions, the Western Pacific region and the European region, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.

The number of cases outside China has risen to 112,878 as of Wednesday morning, according to the situation dashboard by WHO.

In Italy, the hardest-hit European country, the count of cases has reached 35,713 with 2,978 deaths, according to the latest data released by the Civil Protection Department.
Officials in the hard-hit region of Lombardy appealed to recently retired health workers to return to work to relieve over-worked colleagues.

In Spain, the number of cases has risen to 13,716 with 558 deaths as of Wednesday, according to the Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Services. Spanish King Felipe VI sent an Institutional Message to his people on Wednesday, calling for unity in fighting the epidemic.

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In France, which has entered a two-week lockdown since Tuesday, 9,134 cases and 264 deaths have been reported as of Wednesday, according to authorities.

“That same spirit of solidarity must be at the center of our efforts to defeat COVID-19,” said Tedros.