Baku, March 29, AZERTAC
Spanish authorities on Saturday said 832 coronavirus patients had died in the last 24 hours, a record daily death toll in the country, and that although the rate of new infections was slowing, a peak in ICU patients would not arrive until late next week, according to EFE news agency.
Already the second deadliest global hotspot after Italy, Spain’s health ministry said the total number of deaths now stood at 5,960. Some 769 Covid-19 patients died between Thursday and Friday.
However, the number of new infections continued to stabilize, according to Fernando Simon, the head of Spain’s public health emergency department.
He warned however, that there could still be undetected cases in the community and that it was not yet possible to confirm whether the country had hit its peak infection rate.
There were 4,575 people in ICU across the country at the moment.
Another concern for the Spanish government is the number of health workers who have contracted Covid-19, which is 32 percent more than in Italy, the deadliest hotpot.
Officials attributed it, in part, to the level of exposure professionals had to patients in Spain.
As of Friday, more than 9,000 health workers were known to have contracted the disease.
There were 8,189 additional coronavirus cases reported on Saturday, a 12.8 percent jump that brought the overall tally since the outbreak began to 72,248, lower than the 14 percent increase observed the previous day. Some 54,000 of those cases are still active.
Almost 3,000 people recovered in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 12,285, a recovery rate of 17 percent.
Spain is the fourth worst-hit nation in the world in terms of coronavirus cases overall after China, Italy and the United States.
This was the third weekend under a nationwide lockdown for Spain’s 47 million residents.