Spain’s coronavirus outbreak appears to be stabilizing, the country’s prime minister said Thursday, as the death toll begins to slow.
Speaking to a nearly empty parliament, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the country is close to passing the worst part of the fatal outbreak that has hit Spain especially hard.
“The fire starts to come under control,” Mr. Sanchez said, adding that the “war against the virus will be a total victory.”
Spain has reported the second most number of confirmed cases in the world and Europe’s highest with 152,446, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. About 15,238 have died and 52,165 have recovered. Spain has a population of nearly 47 million.
A handful of European countries have been considering easing lockdown and social distancing restrictions as some countries begin to see a plateau in the number of new cases.
Talks within the European Union for an economic relief package for southern nations hit hardest by the virus are expected to continue Thursday after coming to an abrupt halt the day prior.
EU finance ministers had neared an agreement, the BBC reported, but talks crumbled after Italy and the Netherlands disagreed over how to roll out the funding.
The southern European nations could need up to €1.5 trillion ($1.6 trillion) to combat the financial fallout from the crisis, the European Central Bank said.
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