Coronavirus: COVID-19 Cases in Spain, Germany Rise by Nearly 3,000 Overnight

Spain's health emergencies chief Fernando Simon has said the number of dead there has increased from 767 to 1,002.

There are 19,980 cases in Spain, up from 17,147 on Thursday, Sky News reported.

The number of cases in Germany rose by nearly 3000 to 13,957 overnight, a government agency in the country has confirmed.

There were also 11 more deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, bringing the total in Germany to 31.

The Robert Koch Institute, which is responsible for disease control and prevention, has recommended people keep their distance to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Belgium recorded 16 new deaths linked to the coronavirus on Thursday, the biggest daily rise in the country so far.

It means 37 people have now died after testing positive for COVID-19 there.

Belgium recorded 462 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of infected to 2,257.

The rise in European cases come as France's President Emmanuel Macron said at a meeting at the French interior ministry: "We are at the start of this crisis. We have taken exceptional measures to absorb this first wave, but we've started a race against the virus. We must react a great deal and reorganise ourselves at every moment. We need to anticipate."

France is seeing an almost 40% increase in cases and deaths each day.

Around 11,000 people are officially infected and 372 have died so far, forcing the government to introduce confinement measures for its 67 million people.

The country is also still trying to help repatriate 130,000 of its nationals stuck overseas due to the coronavirus pandemic, French Foreign Minster Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Friday.

He told France Info radio: "The fundamental principle is that for the 130,000, we want to bring them back to the national territory, but we ask them to be calm and patient."

Mr Le Drian also urged the more than 3.5 million long-term French expatriates to stay where they are.

He added the government was in talks to buy masks and other equipment for health workers to compensate for the shortfalls in the country.

France received one million masks from China on Thursday.

When asked whether China could be economically strengthened by the crisis in the long-term and whether France and Europe needed to move away from its dependence on the superpower, Mr Le Drian said: "The world of tomorrow will not be the same as the one that we knew before.

"It is clear that in the future we won't be able to delegate our security, health and food needs and our autonomy for essential needs to others. We will need to draw the lessons from this."

It comes as the Cannes Film Festival has been postponed due to the outbreak.

Organisers of the French Riveiera festival, scheduled to take place between 12 and 23 May, said that they are considering moving the event to the end of June or the beginning of July.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has said his country will extend its coronavirus restrictions until 13 April.

The Alpine republic, which has reported more than 2,200 coronavirus cases and six deaths from the global pandemic, put severe restrictions on movement in place on Monday.

It came after a sharp increase in coronavirus cases in some of its regions.

The rise in cases across Europe comes as the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the virus, said over 10,000 people have now died around the world.