Chilean author Luis Sepulveda dies of virus in Spain

17:30, April 16, 2020

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  Medically equipped trains available to run among Spain's autonomous communities to transfer COVID-19 patients

  Photo taken on April 8, 2020 shows a train for transferring COVID-19 patients in Madrid, Spain. Spain's Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda Jose Luis Alabos said on Thursday that a series of medically equipped trains, capable of carrying up to 24 COVID-19 patients, is available to run a

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  Spain's daily virus toll falls again with 510 dead

  Spain registered a fall in its daily death toll from the new coronavirus for a third consecutive day on Saturday with 510 people dying, the government said.Healthcare workers ackwoledge applause in memory of their co-worker Esteban, a male nurse that died of the coronavirus disease at the Severo Ochoa Hospital in Leganes, near Madrid, on April 10, 2020. (Photo: AFP)It was the smallest daily increase since March 23 in Spain, which is suffering one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the world.The update for the last 24 hours raised the countrys overall number of fatalities to 16,353 and the number of confirmed cases another 4,800 to 161,852.Masks will be handed out at metro and train stations from Monday as some companies re-open after a two-week "hibernation" period, the health minister said Friday.Although health chiefs say the pandemic has peaked, they have urged the population to strictly follow the national lockdown which was put in place on March 14 in order to slow the spread of the virus.The restrictions will remain in place until April 25 although the government has made clear it expects to announce another two-week extension.Spain toughened its nationwide lockdown on March 30, halting all non-essential activities until after Easter as it sought to further curb the spread of the virus.

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  Spain's daily virus death toll drops under 40

  File photo: AFPSpain said 399 people died of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours in what was the lowest daily number of deaths in four weeks, the government said on Monday.The latest figures, which showed a slight drop from Sunday when 410 people died, brought further relief to a country which has suffered the third-highest number of virus deaths in the world after the United States and Italy."Today for the first time weve fallen under 400 deaths, although its only a little lower (than Sunday), these figures give us hope," said Fernando Simon, the health ministrys emergencies coordinator."These are very encouraging figures," he said.The data also showed cases rising to 200,210 in Spain, which ranks second in the world in terms of infections after outpacing Italy at the start of April.But it remains well short of the United States which has so far counted more than 750,000 cases and well over 40,000 deaths.In recent weeks, Spain has ramped up its testing procedures and is now carrying out around 40,000 per day, Health Minister Salvador Illa has said.The number of people who have recovered from the virus has now risen to 80,587.Spains health chiefs believe the epidemic peaked on April 2 when 950 people died over 24 hours, nearly three weeks after the government imposed a strict lockdown, effectively confining its close to 47 million citizens at home in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.On Saturday, the government said it would extend the lockdown by another fortnight until May 9, although from April 27 conditions would be slightly eased to allow children to spend some time outside.Until now, they have been confined to their homes under one of the tightest lockdowns in Europe.