At the Vatican, Pope Francis delivered an Easter sermon via video stream from a nearly empty Saint Peter’s Basilica on Sunday.
Pope Francis: “The whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic. May the risen Jesus grant hope to all the poor, to those living on the peripheries, to refugees and the homeless.”
With over 20,000 deaths, Italy has suffered the highest death toll in Europe, and the second highest globally after the United States. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte extended the country’s lockdown to May 3; it was originally set to expire today.
Meanwhile, Spain, which now has over 17,000 COVID-19 deaths, is slowly reopening some sectors of its economy. Spain’s daily death toll rose again over the weekend but then fell to 517 on Monday. Authorities say the rate of new infections in Spain continues to fall.
In Russia, Moscow hospitals say they are seeing a major spike in cases and have been overwhelmed with admissions in recent days as Russia’s death toll topped 100. Winding lines of ambulances were reported at one Moscow hospital Saturday, where one ambulance driver said he had to wait 15 hours to drop off a patient.