Laurence Dollimore
SPAIN’S daily coronavirus death toll has plummeted to 164 this Sunday.
That’s 112 less than yesterday, while bringing the total number of deaths to 25,264.
It is the lowest daily death toll since the state of alarm was announced on March 14 and the first time it has not surpassed 200 since the peak of the pandemic.
The numbers, revealed by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in a meeting with regional leaders this morning, also show a new low for the infection rate.
There were 838 newly confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, a significant drop from Saturday’s 1,143 and the first time in weeks it has dropped below 1,000.
Meanwhile almost double that figure (1,654) have recovered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of people who have overcome COVID-19 to 118,902.
Madrid and Catalunya continue to account for the majority of deaths, registering 88 each today, accounting for more than half of the national total.
They are followed by Castilla-La Mancha (31), Castilla y Leon (12), the Basque Country (8) and Valencia and Galicia both on six.
Aragon, the Balearics and the Canary Islands counted zero deaths while Asturias and La Rioja saw just one and Cantabria, Extremadura, Murcia and Navarra two.
Most of the deaths continue to be in people over 70, with that age group, in both men and women, accounting for 80% of fatalities relating to COVID-19. The majority also had previous conditions such as obesity or diabetes.
While 65 people entered intensive care in the past 24 hours, 50 of them were in Madrid and Catalunya, while seven regions, plus Ceuta and Melilla, registered no new ICU patients.
The numbers are positive and appear to back the government’s decision to begin lifting further restrictions tomorrow, when the country enters Phase 0 of the four-step deescalation plan.
