BRUSSELS, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in European countries.
LONDON -- Another 621 COVID-19 patients have died in Britain, bringing the total coronavirus-related death toll in the country to 28,131, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said Saturday.
The figures include deaths in hospitals, care homes and the wider community.
Chairing Saturday's Downing Street briefing, Jenrick said 182,260 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Britain.
ROME -- Italy saw 1,900 new COVID-19 infections and 1,665 new recoveries in the last 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to 209,328 and 79,914, respectively, according to the latest numbers released by the Civil Protection Department on Saturday.
New fatalities reported on Saturday were 474, bringing the toll to 28,710 since the pandemic first broke out in the country's northern Lombardy region on Feb. 21.
PARIS -- The French government has decided to extend the state of health emergency until July 24 to fight against the coronavirus pandemic, Minister of Health Olivier Veran announced on Saturday.
The state of health emergency, installed since March 24, is to be extended because lifting it, as previously scheduled on May 23, "would be premature" as the risks of an epidemic resurgence are present, the minister told a press conference.
A bill on the extension of the state of health emergency will be debated next week in the Senate before being sent to the National Assembly, said government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye at the press conference.
MADRID -- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday that he will ask the parliament next week to extend the State of Alarm that was imposed since March 15 for a further 15 days when it expires on May 9.
If the request was granted by the Congress, the lower chamber of Spanish Parliament, it would be the fourth extension.
"The State of Alarm has worked in Spain... so we will ask the Congress for another extension for a further 15 days," said Sanchez in a televised speech given on the same day when the majority of Spaniards were allowed outdoors to take exercise for the first time after seven weeks of virtual lockdown.
