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On Tuesday, March 31, France reported its highest daily coronavirus death toll with 499 deaths - a 17% increase. Its total death tally from the virus now stands at 3,523. France's death toll only includes those who died in hospital, and excludes those who die in old people's homes or in personal homes. Its total number of coronavirus cases has increased to 52,128 - a 17% increase in 24 hours - following an increase of 5,565 new cases. At a news conference, State health agency director Jérôme Salomon said the steep rise in cases was a result of ramped up testing in the country. France is in its third week of lockdown and has increased its ICU (Intensive Care Unit) beds from 5,000 to about 10,000 and its goal is to reach 14,500. 22,757 are currently hospitalized with Covid-19 in the country, including 5,565 in intensive care.

According to state and county health agencies, the coronavirus death toll in the US has exceeded 3,500. New York City is the epicenter or "Ground Zero" of the outbreak in the US. New York has more confirmed cases than any other state, with more than 70,000 cases.  More than half of all confirmed cases in the US were recorded in the past five days. The US recorded its highest daily death toll from the virus on Monday, with more than 500 deaths. The US death toll has surpassed that of China, the break-out zone of the virus. The US has the third highest coronavirus death toll, with Italy and Spain being first and second respectively. Globally, more than 823,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus and more than 40,000 have died.

New cases of coronavirus are showing signs of slowing in Italy. On Tuesday, March 31, the number of new cases remained steady; 4,053 new cases today, pretty similar to yesterday's 4,050. The death toll from the virus climbed by 837 to 12,428. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country now stand at 105,792. The slight decline in the rate of new infections and deaths could be indicative of the beginning of a recovery from the coronavirus outbreak in Italy. Italy has had the highest death toll from the virus in the world, and accounts for over a third of global fatalities from the virus. Dr. Silvio Brusaferro advised that Italy's lockdown measures should not be relaxed despite a decline in the rate of new infections. 'The curve suggests we are at the plateau. We have to confirm it, because arriving at the plateau doesn't mean we have conquered the peak and we're done. It means now we should start to see the decline if we continue to place maximum att

Tuesday, March 31 has been Spain's deadliest day as far as the coronavirus crisis is concerned. A record 849 people died today, taking the grim tally of fatalities to 8,189. There was also a significant increase in cases (11% increase) - 9,222 new cases, raising to total number of cases to 94,417.  Maria Jose Sierra, from the Health Ministry's emergencies coordination unit said: "It's true that today we have a slight increase in the number of cases." She however said the downward trend "is continuing", which is true, given that this time last week, the rate of new infections stood at around 20%. Madrid remains the worst-hit area in Spain, and counts 3,609 deaths and 27,509 cases.

On Monday, March 30, Spain overtook China for the number of confirmed coronavirus cases as its total number of cases rose to 85,195. Italy and the US also have more than 85,000 cases. There was however a slight decrease in the number of deaths today with 812 reported deaths; there were 838 deaths on Sunday. Spain's total number of fatalities now stand at 7,340. A minute of silence for coronavirus victims was held in a central Madrid square at midday. More than 46,000 people have been hospitalized for Covid-19 in Spain, and 16,780 have been discharged after their recovery. Health Ministry official Fernando Simon has tested positive for the coronavirus.

On Monday, March 30, Italy's Civil Protection Agency reported 812 coronavirus deaths, a slight increase from Sunday's 756. The number of new infections dropped, with 4,050 cases on Monday, a decline from Sunday's 5,217 and Saturday's 5,974. Italy has 101,739 coronavirus cases in total and a total of 11,591 deaths. In total, 14,620 people have recovered, including 1,590 in the past 24 hours - the highest number of recoveries in a day since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. There are currently 75,528 active coronavirus cases.  According to Deputy Health Minister Pierpaolo Sileri, Italy is on course to start seeing "a drop in the number of people infected within seven to ten days". "The number of people testing positive is falling, despite the fact that we are continuing to carry out the same number of tests, and the number of people who need to be placed in intensive care is no longer as markedly high as it was at the beginning of last w