Spain sees fall in virus deaths again with 637 more in a day

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - In the third encouraging day in a row in Spain, the country registered 637 more COVID-19 deaths since Sunday -- the lowest daily death number in nearly two weeks.

In total, 13,055 people have died of coronavirus in Spain so far and 135,032 cases have been confirmed, according to data released by the Health Ministry on Monday.

Nearly 60,000 people have had to be hospitalized and around 7,000 people have needed to be treated in intensive care units.

The rate of new deaths and more confirmed cases has been slowing significantly for the past three days. On Thursday, the daily death number reached 950, the largest single-day jump the country has yet seen.

Yet, the true extent of coronavirus’s death toll and reach in Spain is not fully understood from the official data. This weekend, Spain’s Justice Ministry published a document ordering Spain’s civil registries to report daily to the central government with precise information about mortalities.

“It’s the only way to give citizens true, objective information and it will allow the health authorities to focus on those places where mortality has been increasing,” read the public document.

Spain has the second most confirmed cases in the world after the U.S. Only Italy has so far registered more deaths.

Last week, Imperial College London estimated that around 7 million people had contracted the virus so far in Spain -- around 15% of the population. The study also suggests that the lockdown measures taken by the Spanish government have saved 16,000 people from dying.

The lockdown in Spain began on March 14 and it is set to last until April 25 at least.

As a result of the lockdown, a video released on Sunday showed crystalline water at a normally polluted beach in Barcelona. Air pollution, responsible for around 10,000 deaths per year in Spain, according to the Spanish government, has also declined drastically throughout the country.

The Spanish government is now mulling action to take for an improved coronavirus scenario. Ideas include expanding testing to people with non-severe symptoms and forcing quarantine if they test positive, calling for the widespread use of masks once they are available and gradually allowing people back outside.

Since Sunday, the number of cured patients jumped up by more than 2,000 to 40,437.