Virus hope in Europe as US girds for 'Pearl Harbour' moment

Europe's hardest-hit nations saw some tentative signs of hope in the fight against the coronavirus on Monday but the United States braced for its "Pearl Harbour moment" as the country's death toll raced towards 10,000.

The virus has infected virtually every corner of the planet, confining nearly half of humanity to their homes and turning life upside down for billions on a deadly march that has claimed nearly 70,000 victims.

Queen Elizabeth II delivered only her fourth emergency address in a 68-year reign to urge Britain and Commonwealth nations to "remain united and resolute" as Prime Minister Boris Johnson was hospitalised with the disease.

But there was cause for cheer in some European hotspots, with Italy reporting its lowest death toll in two weeks, Spanish fatalities dropping for the third straight day and France seeing its fewest dead in a week.

"The curve has started its descent and the number of deaths has started to drop," said top Italian health official Silvio Brusaferro, adding the next phase could be a gradual easing of a strict month-long lockdown.

In Spain, nurse Empar Loren said: "The situation is more stable. The number of patients in intensive care is not growing much anymore, and we are starting to discharge quite a few."
"This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives, quite frankly," US Surgeon General Jerome Adams told Fox News. "This is going to be our Pearl Harbour moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localised."
Images from New York showed medics in protective gear wheeling bodies on stretchers to refrigerated trailers repurposed as makeshift morgues. The city that never sleeps was quiet, the streets around Time Square deserted as neon lights continued to flicker, one reading: "2020. To those fighting for our lives. Thank you."
Describing a rise in abuse as "horrifying," he said authorities should "make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans for COVID-19."
And in the southern Italian city of Naples, a street artist lowered a "solidarity food basket" from his balcony, hollering "If you can, put something in. If you can't, take something out."