Covid-19: Spain becomes the first European country to cross the million cases
Caregivers take care of a patient with Covid-19 at a hospital in Leganes in the suburbs of Madrid on October 9, 2020. AP Photo / Bernat Armangue
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Spain officially became this Wednesday, October 21, the first member of the EU to cross the milestone of one million cases of the new coronavirus, as restrictions multiply in the country to contain the second wave of the epidemic.
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The Spanish Ministry of Health announced in the evening 16,973 cases over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,005,295 since the first case detected on January 31 on the island of Gomera, in the Canary Islands.
Of that total, the death toll now stands at 34,366, after 156 new deaths were recorded in 24 hours.
Spain, with a population of some 47 million, is the sixth country in the world to cross the threshold of one million cases, after the United States, India, Brazil, Russia, and Argentina, according to a census carried out by AFP from official sources.
The second wave of Covid-19 killed fewer people in Spain than the first in March and April, at the peak of the pandemic, when the country recorded more than 800 deaths per day.
In addition, the average age of patients has fallen.
New measures in preparation
But as caregivers fear further saturation of hospitals, Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Tuesday that the government was considering new measures, including the imposition of a curfew, as has already done France, Belgium and Slovenia, as well as two regions in Italy.
"
There will be very difficult weeks, winter is coming, the second wave is no longer a threat, it is a reality throughout Europe
", warned Salvador Illa, who added that the government was "
open to all proposals
”to curb contagions.
Country among the most bereaved by the pandemic, Spain had imposed in the spring one of the strictest confinements in the world to curb the spread of the virus.
But cases started to rise again this summer after the end of confinement in June.
The return of nightlife and the lack of resources to identify, trace and isolate cases are the cause, according to many Spanish epidemiologists.
(With
AFP
)
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