MADRID, April 10. /TASS/. At least 157,022 coronavirus cases have been recorded in Spain since the outbreak began, the national Health Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
The healthcare agency clarified that 15,843 patients died and 55,668 recovered from the disease caused by coronavirus. Therefore, the number of infections rose by 4,576 in the past 24 hours, while 605 people died in that period. This is the lowest figure of daily coronavirus fatalities identified in the country since March 24. The peak number was registered on April 1 when 950 people died from the infection. The daily number of cases reported is also decreasing.
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. Spain has shut down all educational facilities, cafes, bars, parks and entertainment facilities. 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. According to the latest statistics, over 1,600,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 95,800 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 357,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.