Spain’s coronavirus daily toll up again as EU fights over money, policy

Spain recorded a second consecutive daily rise in COVID-19 deaths at 757, raising its total toll to 14,555 on Wednesday, as European Union’s disease monitoring agency said there's no sign yet that the maximum of the region’s outbreak has been reached.

As the pandemic remained to infect and kill large numbers of individuals across the continent, EU plunged into a scientific policy squabble and its finance ministers didn't agree on an exit strategy for their battered economies, while individual countries announced plans to finish their lockdowns.

Finance ministers from the 19 countries that use the euro haggled into the night for 16 hours by videoconference starting Tuesday which ended without a deal. Talks will resume on Thursday.

A blistering row emitted after Mauro Ferrari quit because the head of European Research Council, EU’s top science funding agency, and hit the bloc’s handling of the crisis. The ERC hit back with a lengthy statement accusing Ferrari of being “economical with the truth”.

France reported fewer new cases though deaths accelerated sharply. The overall number of cases rose by 3,777. Deaths rose by 1,417 to 10,328 .

France’s central bank estimated its first-quarter gross domestic product to shrink 6% from previous quarter, the largest quarterly contraction since world war 2. Similarly, experts warned that the German economy, Europe’s biggest, would shrink by nearly 10% within the second quarter, twice as big as the 2008-2009 financial crisis.