Coronavirus live news: death rate slows in Spain and Netherlands as Europe fatalities approach 100,000 | World news

The updated death toll from the UK, the smallest increase in nearly two weeks, brings the total number of officially recorded deaths from Covid-19 in Europe to over 100,000, a terrible milestone of historic proportions.

The figures, from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, record 100,233 deaths in total in European countries, excluding Russia.

Italy still has the highest number of deaths on the continent with 23,227 fatalities, followed by Spain with a death toll of 20,453 and France with 19,323 deaths.

As of 5pm Saturday, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 16,060 have died, the Department of Health and Social Care said.

As of 9am on Sunday, 372,967 people in the UK have been tested, of which 120,067 tested positive.

Of the 482 new deaths announced on Sunday, 118 occurred on 18 April, 243 occurred on 17 April and 62 occurred on 16 April.

Lady Gaga, the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney were among the headline acts in a virtual concert celebrating frontline workers across the world.

Taiwan has quarantined 700 navy officers, service personnel and cadets for testing after 24 members tested positive for Covid-19, the government said.

Chen Shih-chung, the country’s health hinister, said 22 new daily cases had been confirmed including those in the military.

The cases were found on one of three ships in a fleet that visited the small Pacific island of Palau last month.

The latest confirmed cases bring the total on the island to 420 with six deaths.

Iran has become the latest country to ease restrictions by allowing bazaars and shopping malls to reopen from tomorrow.

Some shops and businesses were allowed to open again on Saturday but Monday’s openings will apply to “medium-risk” businesses.

Germany, will also allow shops of up to 800 square metres in addition to car dealers and bike shops while Poland is progressively its lifting lockdown measures from today with shops among the businesses allowed to reopen.

Vladimir Putin said Russian authorities had the coronavirus crisis under “full control” and everything would work out with God’s help despite registering a record daily rise in cases.

Russia reported 6,060 new cases in the previous 24 hours, bringing its nationwide tally to 42,853, though the official death toll of 361 remains relatively low compared with other countries with a similar number of cases.

In a video message to congratulate Christians on the Orthodox Easter, Putin said the religious festival would strengthen Russians’ hope and faith because the resurrection of Christ was a powerful symbol of rebirth and a reminder that life goes on.

The Russian leader said: “All levels of power are working in an organised, responsible and timely way.

“The situation is under full control. All of our society is united in front of the common threat.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying there was hope that signs might start appearing next week that the number of cases, which has risen relentlessly, might begin to plateau.

The Netherlands has reported the lowest daily corona death rate in over three weeks.

The number of deaths has risen by 83, Dutch health authorities said on Sunday, which was the smallest reported daily increase since March 26.

The total number of deaths among people known to have been infected with the coronavirus increased to 3,684, while the number of confirmed infections rose by 1,066 to 32,655.

Denmark’s ambassador to the UK, Lars Thuesen, has said it helps to be honest with the public about lockdown exit strategies.

“It does work,” Thuesen said on the Sophy Ridge on Sunday TV programme.

“Before Easter, the prime minister told the Danes that it would be possible to ease some of the restrictions if they behaved during Easter time, during these wonderful summer temperatures, if they behaved responsibly, if they continued what they had done the first weeks, then we would be able to open up again so it was sort of a pact between the government and the population.”

He said Denmark had been able to lift some lockdown restrictions as the numbers for people in hospital, the numbers for people in intensive care, and the numbers for people on ventilators had been stable or have been coming down over the last two weeks.

“We are definitely not out of the woods yet but we are moving in the right direction and we can’t stay in a lockdown forever, so this decision about the schools, the primary schools and the kindergartens [which reopened this week] is based on scientific advice to the government as such.”

“It might sound strange but the children in this country is not a vulnerable group and that is probably the reason why they chose to open the schools. It is vital for our economy,” he added.

He revealed Denmark was about to widen its testing strategy from only testing people with symptoms. “We are going to test a large proportion of the population in the future, in the days to come, and right now we are building more testing facilities,” Thuesen said.

The Parisian mayor, Anne Hidalgo, had said that she plans to distribute 2.2m face masks to the citizens of the French capital, free of charge.

Around half a million reusable masks will initially be available by the end of April, Hidalgo told the newspaper Journal du Dimanche. By mid-May, all residents of the Paris are supposed to have been provided with a mask. According to Hidalgo, the measure will cost €3m.

“Masks and tests are our priority,” she said, adding: “All Parisians can be equipped.”

Outlining her vision for the next phase of the pandemic, post-confinement, the proposals also include providing people who have tested positive with hotel rooms for a fortnight if they cannot remain confined to their homes without contaminating others, and provisionally creating cycle lanes above the most popular metro lines.

Pope Francis has called for global solidarity after the pandemic, and said that moving on while excluding sectors of society from the recovery would result in “an even worse virus”.

The pope left the Vatican for the first time in more than a month to say Mass in an almost empty church a few blocks away to mark Divine Mercy Sunday, Reuters reports.

In his homily at the Mass, as well as in his traditional Sunday message afterwards, Francis said the recovery could not leave anyone behind and that now was the time to heal injustice around the world because it undermined the health of the entire human family.

“Now, while we are looking forward to a slow and arduous recovery from the pandemic, there is a danger that we will forget those who are left behind,” Francis said.

“The risk is that we may then be struck by an even worse virus, that of selfish indifference. A virus spread by the thought that life is better if it is better for me, and that everything will be fine if it is fine for me.”

The Swiss Covid-19 death toll has reached 1,135 people, the country’s public health agency said on Sunday, rising from 1,111 on Saturday.

The number of confirmed infections increased to 27,740, it said, up from 27,404.