MADRID, April 6. /TASS/. The Spanish Health Ministry has registered 637 coronavirus fatalities in the past 24 hours on Monday. The ministry’s report notes that the country identified at least 135,032 infections since it was hit by the pandemic.

According to the national health agency, 13,055 people died and 40,437 recovered. On Sunday, the country reported 130,759 cases and 12,418 deaths. Therefore, 637 fatalities were reported in Spain over the past 24 hours — the lowest daily number of deaths since March 24. The number of daily infections stands at 4,273, also the lowest since March 23.

Spain is ranked second by coronavirus fatalities in the world after Italy. The country is also second in the world by the number of coronavirus infections after the United States as well as second by the number of recoveries following China.

The first coronavirus case was recorded in Spain on January 31, while the number of infections started rapidly increasing after Italy was hit by a local outbreak. On March 14, the Spanish cabinet approved a high-alert regime introduced due to coronavirus spread. This measure allowed authorities to restrict citizens’ movement across the country except for urgent reasons. Now all educational establishments, cafes, bars, parks and entertainment facilities are shut down. Spaniards are permitted to leave their homes for grocery shopping, to go to the pharmacy, hospital or work if it cannot be carried out from home. Around 3,000 people have already been detained for breaking these restrictions.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. To date, approximately 1,300,000 people have been infected worldwide and roughly 70,000 deaths have been reported. That said, over 265,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.