Coronavirus count is 'stabilising' says minister
Daily death toll reached sad record of 950 in 24 hours yesterday
SPAIN reported a new record in virus-related deaths on Thursday, with 950 in 24 hours although the growth in infections is waning, health ministry data showed.
The total number of deaths stood at 10,003 while new coronavirus infections rose by nearly 8% overnight to 110,238.
Spain in now the third country to surpass that milestone behind the United States and Italy, and could today (Friday) become the second country with the largest number of cases surpassing Italy.
The good news is that Spain is now the second country in the world with the largest number of peple who have recovered: 26,743.
Health authorities said the pace of contagion has dropped from a daily average of 20% until March 25 to less than 12% after that date, more than 10 days after Spaniards were ordered to stay at home.
The government has acknowledged that the real level of infection could be much higher because Spain only has the capacity of doing between 15,000 to 20,000 tests per day.
More testing kits are on the way after one batch of unreliable tests had to be returned to suppliers in China last week.
Health authorities are frantically working to add to the number of intensive care units in hospitals, which are quickly filling up in the country's hardest-hit regions.
Spain is bringing into the country 1,500 purchased ventilator machines and asking local manufacturers to ramp up production, with some creative solutions employed, such as snorkelling masks repurposed as breathing masks.
Health minister Salvador Illa yesterday (Thursday) announced the Seat car manufacturing plant near Barcelona has modified its production line to make 300 ventilators a day, while a company in Mostolés (Madrid) is expected to manufacture 5,000 that will distributed in the coming weeks.
Spain has boosted its number of hospital beds by 20%.
Hotspots in Madrid and Cataluña have almost tripled their intensive care unit (ICU) capacity. Dozens of hotels across Spain have been turned into recovery rooms, and authorities are building field hospitals in sports centres, libraries and exhibition halls such as IFEMA in Madrid - currently the largest 'hospital' in the city, which from this week also has ICUs.
Yesterday afternoon, a supply of 58 tonnes of health equipment landed in Madrid from Shanghai - material that will be distributed to hospitals around the hard-hit region.
But dramatic cries for help are coming from smaller provinces such as Soria, which only has two hospitals in the whole province - usually sufficient in a low-populated area, but currently bursting at the seams, especially taking into account the majority of its population are elderly.
The government announced it has prepared three medical trains to transfer patients from regions were ICUs are absolutely full to others where the situation is slightly better.