Italy sees biggest daily spike in COVID-19 deaths

BEIJING -- As Italy saw the biggest day-to-day spike in fatalities on Friday and global COVID-19 cases continued to rise, the whole world has been toughening the implementation of anti-virus measures.

The European region reported 17,506 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours as of midnight Thursday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases there to 104,591, according to the daily situation report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on late Friday.

COVID-19 seems to reach a new and tragic milestone every day, as more than 210,000 cases, including over 9,000 deaths, have been reported globally, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday at a press conference.

"Every loss of life is a tragedy," Tedros said, calling it "motivation" to double down and do everything to stop transmission of the virus and save lives.

In Italy, 627 patients died of COVID-19 in a 24-hour span on Friday, the highest single-day deaths, bringing the country's COVID-19 death toll to 4,032, according to official data. In the previous 24-hour span, the country saw 427 deaths.

The hard-hit country announced on Friday that it would call up the military to help enforce the national coronavirus lockdown in the hardest-hit parts of the country.

Spain also recorded a steep rise in both death toll and infections on Friday. According to its health ministry, 1,002 people had succumbed to COVID-19 by midday Friday, an increase of 235 deaths from a day ago.

The Spanish government introduced strict controls on roads leading out of the country's main cities in order to keep people at home during the lockdown.

In London, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants must close from Friday night across Britain in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.

Iran, the hardest-hit country in the Middle East, said Friday that 1,433 people have died from COVID-19, which has infected a total of 19,644 people, 6,745 of whom have recovered.

The latest number of COVID-19 cases in the United States has topped 19,285 with 249 deaths, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

The Brazilian Senate on Friday approved a request made by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to declare a state of emergency. The country reported the most infected people in Latin America with its caseload rising to 793 with 11 fatalities.

Besides, the WHO report showed six additional countries and regions reported their first confirmed cases, while 96 countries and regions have seen local transmission of COVID-19.