AGENCIES, Madrid: The death toll in Spain due to COVID-19 soared past 4,800 on Friday after 769 people died in 24 hours, in what was a record one-day figure for fatalities in the country, the government said.Spain has the world’s second-highest death toll after Italy, and has so far suffered 4,858 deaths, while the number of cases jumped to 64,059.
Although, statistics showed a daily increase of nearly 8,000 new infections, despite the increase, the rate of new infections appears to be slowing, registering a 14 per cent increase compared with 18 pervcent on Thursday.
Even so, the number of deaths over a 24-hour period was far higher than Italy, which counted 662 deaths in its last update on Thursday night. Italy’s virus related death toll stands at 8,165 with 80,539 people infected.
Until Thursday night, Italy was superseded by the United States, where 85,991 people have now tested positive for the virus.
Spain has implemented a stringent nationwide lockdown on March 14 which will not be lifted until at least April 11.
As of March 27, 2020, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had spread to six continents, and approximately 24,095 people had died after contracting the respiratory virus.