Madrid (AFP)

The second most affected country in Europe, Spain recorded a new record of deaths from coronavirus in 24 hours with 514 additional deaths between Monday and Tuesday, bringing the total toll to 2,696.

According to these figures published by the Ministry of Health, the total number of confirmed cases has increased by 20% and is approaching 40,000 with 39,673 while the authorities are increasing the number of tests.

Across the country, the number of patients in intensive care stands at 2,636 while the number of people cured is 3,794.

"Fortunately, we have more people healed every day than the total number of dead," said Simon.

This new assessment is published while the government of the socialist Pedro Sanchez must decide to extend Tuesday until April 11 the confinement of the Spaniards, decreed on March 14. Parliament will have to approve this extension.

Spaniards are only allowed to leave their homes, individually and while keeping their distance, only to buy basic necessities, to go to work when telework is not possible or to briefly take their dog out.

However, the authorities have so far ruled out taking more drastic measures.

The pressure on the health system, decimated by the contamination of 5,400 professionals, will continue to worsen as long as new patients have to be hospitalized, however warned Fernando Simon.

According to him, the cases of infection of the medical personnel are partly due to the lack of protective equipment "in certain places", but he underlined the difficulty to obtain this material on a world level.

The Madrid region is still the most affected with 1,535 deaths, or 57% of the total and 12,352 cases (31% of the total).

- A morgue in a skating rink in Madrid -

Faced with the saturation of its funeral services, the Spanish capital decided to set up as a morgue the large skating rink of a shopping center.

"We do not have the logistical capacity to be able to carry out burials and cremations given the pace at which the deaths occur," admitted the mayor of Madrid José Luis Martinez-Almeida on public television.

The huge exhibition halls at the Madrid fair have also been transformed into a 1,500-bed field hospital that will eventually be able to accommodate up to 5,500.

For its part, the army continues to disinfect retirement homes, establishments for the very vulnerable population where dozens of deaths have been recorded.

The soldiers found corpses in "certain residences", confirmed without giving more details the Chief of the Defense Staff Miguel Angel Villarroya. The Spanish public prosecutor's office opened an investigation on Monday into the case.

Beyond its activity of monitoring compliance with containment, the police must locate hospital patients "who have left the hospital without having received the medical green light" and could therefore contaminate other people, said José Angel Gonzalez, national police official.

© 2020 AFP