The Health Ministry says regions are starting to see a certain drop in pressure at intensive care units

The Health Ministry says regions “are starting to see a certain drop in pressure at intensive care units,“ and that 30% of all confirmed cases have been discharged from hospital

María José Sierra, deputy head of Spain’s health emergency committee, said that the outbreak was slowing due to the confinement measures introduced by the government.

As yet ”we do not know when the measures will be eased,“ she said which “is why talks are being held about a transition period.

That will be when we have to increase early detection of the coronavirus and the government is planning a broad study to find out how many people have contracted the disease.

The logistics won’t be easy, José Sierra said but it will take place in the next few weeks.

The Spanish government is planning on testing 62,400 people, or around 30,000 families, for Covid-19.

A fast test will be conducted on every member of a household, and if it comes back negative, a PCR test, which is more reliable, will be done.

The measure is aimed at determining what percentage of the population has the virus to help the government decide what confinement measures can be lifted and how.

Spain recorded 743 coronavirus deaths in the previous 24 hours yesterday, this represents the first rise in four days.

The increase, due to the trend of underreporting of figures on Sundays and Mondays since the beginning of the crisis.

The total number of deaths now stands at 13,798, with confirmed infections at 140,510, a rise of 5,478 in the last 24 hours and new infections grew by just 4% of the total.

The government is yet to clarify how it plans to carry out one of its most important measures to slow the transmission of the coronavirus: the isolation of asymptomatic cases in hotels and other public and private installations.

Justice Minister Juan Carlos Campo said that the government was considering legal measures for those who refused to self-isolate.

Government sources say a final decision has not yet been made, but the idea is that the confinement will be voluntary.