A medical worker from China’s Jilin Province reacts as she prepares to return home at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province early today. Within hours of China lifting an 11-week lockdown on the central city of Wuhan early today, tens of thousands people had left the city by train and plane alone, according to local media reports. (AP photo)

LONDON — After 76 days in lockdown, the Chinese city at the heart of the global pandemic reopened today and tens of thousands immediately hopped on trains and planes to leave. Elsewhere, the economic, political and psychological toll of fighting the virus grew increasingly clear and more difficult to bear.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a second night in intensive care, the first major world leader confirmed to have COVID-19. His condition was stable, the 55-year-old leader was receiving oxygen but was not on a ventilator, officials said.

Across the Atlantic, New York endured one of its darkest days so far, with the virus death toll surging past 4,000, hundreds more than the number killed on 9/11. New York state recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, its biggest one-day jump yet, for a statewide toll of nearly 5,500.

“Behind every one of those numbers is an individual. There’s a family, there’s a mother, there’s a father, there’s a sister, there’s a brother. So a lot of pain again today,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

More pain was also seen on the economic front. Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, could contract by a record 25% this quarter, the highest since gross domestic product began to be tracked in 1955. The dismal prediction by economists Naohiko Baba and Yuriko Tanaka said exports were expected to dive 60% in the April-June period.

The Bank of France said the French economy has entered recession with an estimated 6% drop in the first quarter compared to the previous three months, while Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, is also facing a deep recession with experts saying its economy will shrink 4.2% this year.

European governments have been scrambling to put together hundreds of billions of euros to save lives and prevent bankruptcies. The countries worst hit by the virus are among those that can least afford the costs, like Italy and Spain. But they disagree over how to tackle the challenge.

The finance ministers of countries using the shared euro currency failed today to agree on how to help their nations through the crisis, breaking off after marathon all-night talks. They will resume Thursday.

With European health workers toiling round the clock for weeks in a desperate bid to save lives, the psychological toll was becoming unbearable.

weeks into Italy’s outbreak, two nurses have already killed themselves and more than 70 doctors and 20 nurses have died from the virus. Hospitals are making therapists available to help staff cope with the emotional toll of seeing so much death. Italy is the hardest-hit country overall, with over 17,000 deaths.

In Spain, Dr. Luis Díaz Izquierdo, from the emergency ward in a suburban Madrid hospital, said the sense of helplessness was crushing.

“No matter what we did, they go, they pass away,” he said.

Nurse Diego Alonso said he and other colleagues have been using tranquilizers to cope.

“The psychological stress from this time is going to be difficult to forget. It has just been too much,” he said.

Spain’s Health Ministry today reported 757 new deaths of virus patients and 6,180 new confirmed infections. Both figures were slightly higher than Tuesday’s, when the first increase in five days was explained by a backlog of test results and unreported weekend fatalities.