WORLD WAR III IN PHOTOS
Globe united in fight vs. a microscopic menace Spain hit with wave of deaths
The death toll from Spain’s fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak jumped about 27% on Monday, bringing the total to at least 2,182 and confirming the country’s status as one of the world’s hardest-hit nations.
The Spanish Health Ministry said more than 33,000 people have been infected with the virus and about a third of them are in or around Madrid. The Catalonia region was also struggling with a surge of infections, with more than 1,000 new cases confirmed Monday.
The grim figures make Spain the country with the third-highest number of deaths from coronavirus, behind Italy and China.
In response to the crisis, the Spanish government has imposed some of Europe’s most drastic measures to try to contain the spread. The country’s more than 47 million residents are under a lockdown that prevents most of them from leaving their homes.
But Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned over the weekend that “the worst is yet to come.”
“There are hard days ahead,” he said in a televised speech. “We have to get ready from a physiological and emotional standpoint. We have to get to the end of next week strong, very strong. The risk is everywhere.”
Some Spanish authorities believe the pandemic’s socalled “peak” could happen as soon as Wednesday.
“We believe this week we’ll reach the famous ‘peak’ — in which we see new cases, but less than the day before,” Enrique Ruiz Escudero, a senior health official with Madrid’s Regional Government, told a radio station on Monday, according to CNN.
About 10% of people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Spain have already recovered, according to the country’s health ministry.