One in ten Spanish coronavirus victims has now died from the disease, as country records 152,446 cases and 15,238 deaths
One in ten people diagnosed with coronavirus in Spain has now died from the illness, new data released Thursday has shown.
The country had recorded a total of 152,446 cases of coronavirus on Thursday, after an increase of 5,756 on the 146,690 confirmed on Wednesday.
Meanwhile the total number killed stands at 15,238, an increase of 683 on the previous total of 14,555.
The number of new deaths has now fallen for three consecutive days, and is well below the peak of 950 deaths which occurred a week ago.
Barring a blip in the data on Monday which the government said was due to a reporting backlog, the rate of new deaths has also fallen consistently for nine days.
The rate of new infections – a key statistic in telling whether a country has passed its virus peak and is flattening the curve – has also fallen consistently for two weeks.
Those figures prompted Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to declare that the country is seeing a decline in its outbreak on Thursday.
He also called for all political parties to join together and promote a national economic revival as the country moves out of the crisis.
‘The fire starts to come under control … This war against the virus will be a total victory,’ he told a near-empty parliament as more than 300 lawmakers participated remotely due to lockdown regulations.
They were to vote on a two-week extension of Spain’s state of emergency, which would keep people at home until April 26.
The government’s proposed new economic deal is inspired by the ‘Pacts of Moncloa’, signed in 1977 after the death of dictator Francisco Franco to transform the state-run economy into a market economy for newly-democratic Spain.
It seeks to unite the splintered political landscape, and also encompass unions, companies and regions, behind a common economic reconstruction policy.
‘I propose a great pact for the economic and social reconstruction of Spain, for all the political forces who want to lend their shoulder to take part,’ said Sanchez, a Socialist who leads a leftist coalition government after a series of inconclusive elections.
Spain’s measures to curb the COVID-19 disease – some of the toughest in Europe – have helped save many lives and slashed the proportional daily increase in new infections to 4% from 22%, Sanchez also told parliament .
Latest health ministry data showed on Wednesday total deaths from the epidemic rising by 757 to 14,555 – the world’s third-highest after Italy and the United States. Overall, Spain’s cases rose to 146,690 from 140,510 on Tuesday.
Despite the extension of the lockdown, the government plans to ease restrictions for companies after shutting down all non-essential businesses nearly two weeks ago.
