The Health Ministry’s María José Sierra says Spain is still in the stabilisation phase of the coronavirus pandemic

The Health Ministry’s María José Sierra says Spain is still in the stabilisation phase of the coronavirus pandemic.

While the latest data is positive, the main focus is on patients in intensive care.

The numbers in ICUs, she said, “reflects what happened two to three weeks ago, and twenty-two percent of cases have been discharged.”

The number of coronavirus infections in the country are at 102,136, an increase of 7,719, with 864 deaths recorded in the previous 24 hours, the highest figure since the beginning of the outbreak. The spike was broadly expected, given reporting delays over the weekend.

The number of fatalities since the crisis began now exceeds 9,000. Around 22,600 patients have recovered from the Covid-19 disease and have been discharged from hospital.

The day on day increase in deaths in percentage terms related to total cases is now at 10.5% and has been falling since March 25, when the rise was 27%.

The figure for total cases does not provide the whole story in Spain though, given that massive testing is still only being carried out on those with serious symptoms.

Defence chief, Miguel Ángel Villarroya, says the Spanish military are working in 223 different areas, and carrying out disinfections, as well as transporting the deceased.

The navy ship Galicia is being prepared as a field hospital, and will be deployed at the North African exclave city of Melilla.

Civil Guard chief José Manuel Santiago warned of online fraud with messages being sent via WhatsApp saying that mobile phone networks are giving away gigabytes of data but customers should not click on these links, be suspicious of information that has not been requested and report them to the Civil Guard.

Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Nadia Calviño says that a fall in tourism is going to hit the Spanish economy particularly hard.

“But elsewhere the economy was growing in a very dynamic manner until the end of February.”

Written by BayRadio