Coronavirus Infections in Spain Jump by 2,000 Over 24 Hours

Sputnik News

14:03 GMT 15.03.2020(updated 16:42 GMT 15.03.2020)

MADRID (Sputnik) - The number of people infected with the coronavirus in Spain rose by 2,000 over the past day to 7,753, the Health Ministry said in a daily update on Sunday.

The death toll went up by 100 cases over the same period and now totals 288, a vast majority of them in the capital Madrid, which accounts for the biggest share of infections.

The Spanish government announced tight restrictions on Saturday. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the nation was entering a new containment phase, limiting travel for 15 days and closing non-essential businesses. People have been told to work from home, and numerous events, including football matches, had been suspended.

Spain remains the second-worst hit country in Europe after Italy, where over 21,000 people have been infected and more than 1,400 have succumbed to the virus. In total, there are over 162,000 confirmed cases across the globe and the death toll has surpassed 6,000. At the same time, almost half of those infected (around 75,000) have successfully recovered from the disease.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United Kingdom rose by 232 in the past day to 1,372, the Department of Health said in an update on Sunday.

"Across the UK, there have been 40,279 concluded tests of which 38,907 were confirmed negative, and 1,372 positive", it reads.

The death toll increased by almost a third to 35 cases since Saturday.

The virus spread across over 110 countries, meanwhile, prompted the World Health Organization on Wednesday to call it a pandemic.

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