MADRID — Spain is maintaining its positive evolution of its coronavirus outbreak a day after its government succeeded in securing parliamentary support for a new two-week extension of its lockdown measures despite losing some important support from political rivals.

Spanish health authorities reported about 200 new fatalities on Thursday, taking the total death toll just over 26,000 since the start of the outbreak in Spain. That is down from over 900 deaths a day a month before.

Spain has reported nearly 257,000 covid-19 infections.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez salvaged a critical parliamentary vote on Wednesday to keep alive a state of emergency despite the loss of the backing of the main opposition party. The state of emergency that gives the government extraordinary powers to apply the lockdown that has successfully reined in the virus will now last until May 24.

Spain is slowly rolling back its restrictions. Children were allowed to go outside for short walks with parents on April 26 and adults followed last weekend with outings for exercise.

Spain’s government top virus expert said that any possible upticks in the contagion rate of that relaxation would be seen in the coming days.

“It is from here on that we should start to see if there are any effects,” Fernando Simón said. “We have not noticed anything yet. We are maintaining the same tendency.”

Other world coronavirus news

LONDON — The British government says a shipment of personal protective equipment from Turkey intended to help ease supply problems is sitting in a warehouse because it does not meet U.K. standards.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said the 400,000 medical gowns are not “of the quality that we feel is good enough for our frontline staff” treating coronavirus patients.

AP A British air force plane is pictured April 21, 2020, at Istanbul Airport in Istanbul. According to reports, the plane arrived to transport medical equipment back to Britain.  

The shipment has become an embarrassment for the British government since a minister announced on April 18 that it would arrive the next day. It was four days before a Royal Air Force plane was able to fly the cargo to the United Kingdom.

Like many other countries, the United Kingdom has struggled to maintain a constant supply of protective equipment amid unprecedented global demand. The Department of Health said “this is a global pandemic with many countries procuring PPE, leading to shortages around the world, not just the U.K.”

BERLIN — Germany’s public health agency has cautiously welcomed the ‘emergency brake’ agreed to by federal and state authorities should coronavirus cases rebound, but warned that the pandemic is far from over.

Lars Schaade, deputy head of the Robert Koch Institute, said Thursday that setting a level of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants for reimposing lockdown measures was a “pragmatic threshold that I believe in principle is sensible.”

AP Lars Schaade (rear center), vice-president of the Robert-Koch-Institute, addresses the media Thursday during a press conference in Berlin, Germany.  

But he noted that Germany remains “at the start of the pandemic,” adding that “it can last many months and it will probably continue into the next year.”

Germany has managed to sharply reduce the rate of new infections to about 1,000 nationwide per day, prompting calls for restrictions to be eased. On Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel and governors of the 16 states agreed to further loosen the rules, albeit with a fallback clause.

The Robert Koch Institute reported more than 166,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 by Thursday — about 26,000 of them still active — and more than 7,000 deaths. Germany has a population of about 83 million.

Schaade said that only about a third of Germany’s massive test capacity of almost 1 million a week is now being used, and only about 3.8% of the roughly 318,000 tests conducted last week was positive.

BEIJING — China is firing back at U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s claim that there is “enormous evidence” that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory, accusing him of “making up lies and covering up a lie by fabricating more lies.”

The strong language from Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying at a Thursday briefing came as U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies have continued to express confidence in an unsubstantiated theory linking the origin of the outbreak to a possible accident at a Chinese virology laboratory.

U.S. officials say they are still exploring the subject and describe the evidence as purely circumstantial. But Trump, aides say, has embraced the notion to further highlight China’s lack of transparency.

AP People with face masks gather Thursday at a public park in Beijing.  

Pompeo told ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that there is “enormous evidence” that the virus began in the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the city where the outbreak was first detected.

“Under the situation that no scientists and experts can even draw any conclusions, why did Secretary Pompeo want to rush to the conclusion to hold the Wuhan laboratory accountable? Where is his evidence?,” Hua told reporters, while defending the integrity of the Wuhan lab.

JOHANNESBURG — Around 850,000 people across Africa — population 1.3 billion — have been tested for the coronavirus since the pandemic began. That’s according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Director John Nkengasong again tells reporters that “we are not testing enough.” The Africa CDC last month said it hoped to test 1 million people within four weeks and 10 million within about six months. But the supply of testing kits remains a challenge.

“Without tests, we’ll be fighting blindly,” Nkengasong said. He added that “we are in for a very long fight, let me be clear with everyone.” Africa’s confirmed virus cases are now above 51,000.

BRUSSELS — All passengers on high-speed Thalys trains will have to wear masks as of next week as the company prepares to start operating more trains.

In an email to customers, the French-Belgian operator also said the frequency of trains will be increased as of June 9, with five daily round trips between Brussels and Paris, except on Sundays, and more trains linking Amsterdam, Paris and Dortmund.

The number of Thalys trains has been strongly reduced during the coronavirus pandemic, with just one daily round trip between Brussels and Paris, and one round trip between Belgium’s capital city and Amsterdam currently operated.

WARSAW, Poland — A hospital director in southern Poland says that treatment with plasma from a COVID-19 survivor has led to a rapid improvement of a woman suffering from the disease and being in serious condition and on ventilator after emergency cesarean section.

Dr. Jacek Mazur of the Kedzierzyn-Kozle hospital said that 36 hours after receiving the plasma the 31-year-old woman was taken off the ventilator and began breathing on her own. After another 24 hours her condition allowed for her to be moved from intensive care to a regular ward, Mazur told TVN24.

“It was a spectacular improvement,” Mazur said.

Before the plasma was applied, the woman had spent a week in intensive care in serious and deteriorating condition, said Mazur who is the hospital’s director for medical matters.

The woman remains in hospital since April 23, currently in good condition. The baby girl born in the 30th week of pregnancy was not infected, but needed intensive care and was taken to another hospital. Her condition is also improving.

MOSCOW — Russian health officials reported more than 11,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday — a new record daily spike which brought the country’s total over 177,000 confirmed cases.

Russia’s official caseload has thus surpassed that of Germany and France, becoming the 5th largest in the world. The actual number of cases is likely to be much higher as not everybody is getting tested and many people infected with the virus don’t show any symptoms.

Last week, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin suggested in his blog that as many as 2% of Moscow’s 12.7 million population — more than 200,000 people — may be infected with the coronavirus. Moscow has currently registered about 93,000 confirmed cases.

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