The Latest: Spain counts losses in tourism from outbreak

MADRID -- New statistics in Spain show the coronavirus outbreak cost the country’s key tourism sector more than 15 billion euros ($17 billion) in two months.

Figures published Thursday by Spain’s official statistics agency showed that in May, the number of tourist arrivals was zero. It was the same in April, as Spain closed its borders from mid-March until June 21 to fight the spread of COVID-19.

In April and May last year, 15 million tourists on average spent more than 1,000 euros ($1,130) each.

Tourism is one of Spain’s economic mainstays, and authorities are hoping to salvage some of the summer season by encouraging foreign visitors to come.

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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— A predicted surge in U.S. job growth for June might not last

— Closing bars to stop coronavirus spread is backed by science

— Trump says he’ll now wear mask in public, thinks it makes him look like Lone Ranger

— The coronavirus death toll in Brazil keeps rising and among the dead is a little girl named Vitoria Gabrielle from a working class Rio de Janeiro neighborhood.

— Some public health experts are criticizing the U.S. for securing a large supply of the only drug licensed so far to treat COVID-19. The U.S. government announced this week that it had an agreement with Gilead Sciences to make the bulk of their production of remdesivir for the next three months available to Americans.

— Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech are reporting encouraging signs from its very early testing of a possible COVID-19 vaccine. Preliminary results released Wednesday from 45 volunteers showed hoped-for immune reactions in two of the tested doses.

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