Spain has become the third country to surpass China’s coronavirus infection total after the number of cases rose by almost 6,400 overnight.
Health authorities said Monday that they had diagnosed a total of 85,195 cases of the virus, up by 6,398 from 78,797 reported the day before. China has reported more than 82,000 cases.
The US – with more than 140,000 confirmed cases – and Italy – with almost 100,000 – have also surpassed China’s figure.
Spain’s death toll also increased by 812 overnight from 6,528 to 7,340. Monday’s increase was steep, but not as steep as Sunday’s total of 838 which marked the country’s worst day of the pandemic so far.
Only Italy has recorded larger one-day death totals than Spain, with its worst day coming between Thursday and Friday last week when 969 were killed.
Spain has now registered more coronavirus infections in total than China – at 85,195 – but the rate at which new people are becoming infected has started to fall, as this graph shows
Coronavirus deaths have continued to climb in Spain as hospitals have been overwhelmed. Monday saw 812 people die, a high total but marginally better than the 838 who died Sunday
Spain recorded an additional 6,398 coronavirus cases between Sunday night and Monday, meaning has now surpassed China’s reported total alongside Italy and the US
Members of Spain’s military emergency unit with marks on their backs from carrying backpacks filled with disinfectant prepare to disinfect a facility for the mentally handicapped
Cars carrying military emergency units from Spain make their way through the streets of Madrid as they disinfect public buildings
Soldiers and workers of NGO Medecins du Monde are seen at Gregorio Maranon Hospital where a field hospital has been set up to deal with infections in Madrid
Some 12,298 health workers have tested positive for coronavirus in Spain, deputy health emergency chief Maria Jose Sierra said at a news conference on Monday.
That is equivalent to around 14 per cent of the country’s 85,195 confirmed cases, roughly the same proportion as last week.
In Madrid, where nearly half of the total deaths have been recorded, flags were hoisted at half-mast Monday as authorities declared the start of an official mourning.
The first of daily minutes of silence to honour those killed also took place at noon.
Authorities also stepped up the country’s half-a-month lockdown on Monday, beginning with a new two-week period of ‘hibernation,’ as described by a Spanish Cabinet member in order to alleviate pressure on the country’s health system.
Only workers in hospitals, pharmacies, the food supply chain and other essential industries are required to work until the end of Easter, in mid-April, while the rest have been asked to scale back operations to weekend-level.
Doctors, nurses and hospital workers at the Quiron Hospital in Barcelona observed a minute of silence at midday Monday before bursting into applause for a doctor who died at the centre
Health workers keep a minute of silence after the death of a doctor from coronavirus at the Quiron Hospital in Barcelona
Spain’s government has declared a daily minute of silence to honour those who have died from coronavirus, with flags flown at half-mast over Madrid’s government building
Spanish national flag flies at half mast on top of a banner reading ‘Thank You. Stay at Home’ an the facade of Madrid’s City Hall
At least six of Spain’s 17 regions are at their limit of ICU beds and three more were close to it, authorities said, while frantic construction of field hospitals continues.
Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced the new restrictions in an address to the nation at the weekend.
He said: ‘I’m announcing to you that the Spanish government will tomorrow (SUN) approve in an emergency Cabinet meeting an exceptional measure.
‘All workers performing non-essential activities must remain at home for the next fortnight like they do at the weekend.’
He added: ‘If we achieve the level of mobility we’re seeing at weekends on working days, we can halt even more the spread of this pandemia.’
King Felipe VI of Spain and his wife Queen Letizia speak to Spanish Red Cross workers about the coronavirus crisis from the Zaruzela Palace in Madrid
Felipe and Letizia were given updates by Red Cross workers on efforts being taken to contain the spread of coronavirus, including expanding the nationwide lockdown
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced the new restrictions in an address to the nation this evening
The period of the ban covers eight working days. Employees who have to stay at home will be paid but will be expected to do extra hours over the next few months to make up the time they are not at work.
The government announcement came as no surprise as ministers had hinted a tightening of the work regulations was being looked at earlier in the week.
Construction workers and workers in factories which are not producing medical equipment or essentials like food will be among those who will join the likes of restaurant and bar staff who have already spent two weeks under lockdown.
The measure will not affect medical workers, police and lorry drivers who are transporting food and other basic commodities. Supermarket staff will also continue to work.
Mortuary employees wearing face masks bury the coffin of a COVID-19 coronavirus victim at Fuencarral cemetery in Madrid on Sunday
Men prepare to close a grave at the Fuencarral cemetery in Madrid, Spain on Sunday afternoon
The army now being handed emergency powers to transfer bodies because undertakers can’t cope. Pictured: Priest gives a response in front the coffin of a woman who died of coronavirus disease
Those who have died of coronavirus in Spain include the head of an elite Spanish police unit created to fight ETA terrorism.
Jesus Gayoso Rey, 48, lost his fight for life on Friday at a hospital in the northern Spanish city of Logrono.
He was head of the Civil Guard’s Rapid Action Group, which has become heavily involved in recent years in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism.
Members of the special forces unit, which has also undertaken international missions in places like Kosovo and Haiti, arrested British fugitive Daniel Dobbs in January at his hideaway in Malaga.
Entrance of Gregorio Maranon Hospital in Madrid, where screening centres for patients with coronavirus symptoms (left) have been set up outside the main building
Medics in protective gear make their way into Gregorio Maranon hospital in Madrid while those who have removed most of their equipment (left) make their way out
A temporary field hospital at Gregorio Maranon Hospital in Madrid
The 32-year-old had gone missing from a South Yorkshire prison in November 2018 after being sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in jail in January 2014 for trafficking heroin and amphetamines.
He was held during a dawn raid linked to an operation against an illegal subterranean Costa del Sol cigarette factory he was suspected of running with another Brit.
Spain has now entered the third week of a state of emergency which has meant the closure of theatres, restaurants, nightclubs and clothes shops. On March 14 peoples’ free movement was also limited to prevent people doing things like going out for a jog or cycle ride.
Spain’s emergency health director Fernando Simon claimed yesterday/on Saturday: ‘The disease is stabilising and we can say some areas of the country may have surpassed the peak, although we can’t say the same at a national level.’
But during questions from the press at a daily coronavirus briefing he declined to specify which areas he was referring to.
It comes after the army were handed emergency powers to transfer bodies because undertakers are unable to cope.
The government gave soldiers temporary authorisation to help alleviate the problem by publishing the new order in an official state bulletin today.
The Ministry of Health-issued order states: ‘The Armed Forces that form part of the operation against Covid-19 are authorised to drive and transfer corpses at the request of the appropriate authorities.’
Two people dance on the roof of their house in Madrid as they attempt to make the best of the lockdown which has seen people confined to their homes
Health Minister Salvador Illa said: ‘Special attention needs to be paid during this health crisis to the issue of the transfer of corpses, to properly manage the removal and conservation of bodies through accumulation and the absence of available funeral services.’
The task of removing coronavirus victims’ bodies is expected to fall on Spain’s military emergency unit called UME which has been at the forefront of the mass disinfecting of residential elderly care homes and other public areas.
The order is valid until mid-April but are expected to be extended if Spain’s state of emergency goes from four weeks to six.
Spain’s Defence Minister Margarita Robles told a Spanish TV programme earlier this week soldiers tasked with disinfecting the homes as part of the fight against coronavirus were discovering abandoned bodies.
She said: ‘The army, during some visits, has seen elderly people absolutely abandoned, if not dead in their beds.
Her comments have been criticised by senior nursing home workers who say the problem has been that undertakers were saturated by the number of deaths and could not cope.
The sharp increase in the number of deaths caused by coronavirus has laid to bodies being left longer than normal. Pictured: Members of the Emergency Military Unit
Spain is now the fourth worst effected country in the world. Pictured: Medical staff in Madrid transfer a patient in a wheelchair
The latest figures recording the rise in Spain’s coronavirus death toll come after:
Spain extended a nationwide lockdown on Thursday by a further 15 days to April 12 and said it was fighting a ‘real war’ over medical supplies to contain the death toll.
Health authorities are hoping it will soon become clear whether the lockdown is having the desired effect.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose wife is infected with the virus, previously said this is the country’s most difficult moment since its 1936-39 civil war.
‘Only the oldest, who knew the hardships of the civil war and its aftermath, can remember collective situations that were harsher than the current one.
‘The other generations in Spain have never, ever had to face as a collective something so hard.’
First royal death from coronavirus: 86-year-old Princess Maria Teresa of Spain’s Bourbon-Parma dynasty dies after testing positive
Princess Maria Teresa of Spain has died aged 86 after testing positive for coronavirus.
The princess, of the Bourbon-Parma Royal Family in Spain, passed away yesterday her younger brother, Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma, announced.
She was born in Paris, France on July 28, 1933 to parents, Prince Xavier and Madeleine de Bourbon, who had a total of six children.
Princess Maria Teresa de Bourbon Parme and Prince Jaime de Bourbon Parme arrive for the presentation of her book ion 2014
The royals are members of the House of Bourbon-Parma which is a cadet branch of the Spanish royal family, descended from the French Capetian dynasty.
A cadet branch is created when a young member of a Royal Family, who is not the current heir, is granted lands and titles of his own.
Members of the family once ruled as King of Etruria and as Duke of Parma and Piacenza, Guastalla, and Lucca until 1859.
The news comes after it was revealed Prince Charles, 71, has a ‘mild’ form of the illness.
He is on the Balmoral estate with his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, who has tested negative and is without any symptoms of the virus, which has killed 435 and infected 8,200 more in the UK so far.
Maria Teresa Of Bourbon Parma Wearing A Jacques Heim Evening Dress in her younger years
Head of elite Spanish police unit created to fight terrorism has died of coronavirus
The head of an elite Spanish police unit created to fight ETA terrorism has died of coronavirus.
Jesus Gayoso Rey, 48, lost his fight for life on Friday at a hospital in the northern Spanish city of Logrono.
He was head of the Civil Guard’s Rapid Action Group, which has become heavily involved in recent years in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism.
Jesus Gayoso Rey, 48, (pictured) lost his fight for life on Friday at a hospital in the northern Spanish city of Logrono
Members of the special forces unit, which has also undertaken international missions in places like Kosovo and Haiti, arrested British fugitive Daniel Dobbs in January at his hideaway in Malaga.
The 32-year-old had gone missing from a South Yorkshire prison in November 2018 after being sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in jail in January 2014 for trafficking heroin and amphetamines.
He was held during a dawn raid linked to an operation against an illegal subterranean Costa del Sol cigarette factory he was suspected of running with another Brit.
Civil Guards were joined last night night by National Police officers and emergency services workers in an emotional tribute outside the force’s HQ in Logrono
Mr Gayoso, who had no known underlying health issues, had joined the unit he headed nearly 25 years ago.
The married dad-of-two started to feel unwell on March 8 and thought he had common flu. He is said to have been sent home after going to hospital four days later before being admitted to San Pedro Hospital in Logrono on March 17 in a serious condition.
He became the fourth Civil Guard to die of Covid-19. Nearly 800 Spanish police officers have died after testing positive for the virus.
After a round of applause they sang a hymn used to honour Armed Forces members who lose their lives in service. The Christian song translates in English as ‘Death Is Not The End’
The Civil Guard said in a tweet: ‘We regretfully confirm the death of Jesus, head of the force’s Rapid Action Group, victim of Covid-19.
‘Our hearts are with his relatives, friends and colleagues. Rest in peace brother. We will never forget your example.’
Civil Guards were joined last night night by National Police officers and emergency services workers in an emotional tribute outside the force’s HQ in Logrono.
After a round of applause they sang a hymn used to honour Armed Forces members who lose their lives in service. The Christian song translates in English as ‘Death Is Not The End.’
The married dad-of-two (pictured) became the fourth Civil Guard to die of Covid-19. Nearly 800 Spanish police officers have died after testing positive for the virus
Members of Mr Gayoso’s unit were involved in making sure coronavirus sufferers in a northern Spanish town which was one of the first to be hit by a mass outbreak earlier this month, obeyed quarantine orders.
More than 30 people tested positive for the virus in Haro, which has a population of just over 12,000, after attending a gypsy funeral in the Basque capital Vitoria.
Police sources said he started to display the tell-tale symptoms of coronavirus before his officers were sent to Haro in hazmat suits. He is believed to have caught it during a work trip to Belgium at the start of the month.
