Spain sees worst day for coronavirus deaths with over 800 fatalities in last 24 hours
Spain has seen its worse day for coronavirus deaths since the outbreak began with 838 fatalities in the last 24 hours.
A total of 6,528 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Spain have now died, the second-highest death count in the world behind Italy which has seen more than 10,000 deaths.
Sunday's number is slightly up from Saturday, when 832 people were reported to have died from the virus.
But the death toll has doubled in a week, and the number of deaths in Spain rose from 100 to 1,000 faster than in Italy.
The number of infections rose by more than 6,500 from Saturday to Sunday for a new total of 78,797.
However, in a sliver of good news, the rate of infections continues to decrease.
Spain has been in lockdown for two weeks under a national state of emergency.
On Sunday, Prime minister Pedro Sanchez's Cabinet will approve a new decree to tighten those controls.
The measures will allow only workers commuting to work related to health care and food production and distribution to travel for two weeks.
Both Spain and Italy have demanded more European help as the continent faces its worst crisis since the Second World War.
Italy reported more than 750 new coronavirus deaths on Sunday, bringing the country’s total to nearly 10,800.
But the number of new infections is showing signs of easing and officials are cautiously optimistic the country's severe shutdown is showing results.
Mr Sanchez called for a more urgent response from the 27-nation bloc.
“It is the most difficult moment for the EU since its foundation and it has to be ready to rise to the challenge,” Sanchez said.
Spain, Italy, France and six other EU members have asked the union to share the burden of European debt, dubbed coronabonds, to help fight the virus. But the idea has met resistance from other members, led by Germany and the Netherlands.
Meanwhile Iran has reported 123 new deaths caused by the new coronavirus, bringing the country's number of dead to 2,640.
There were 2,901 confirmed cases of coronavirus on Saturday, bring Iran's number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 to 38,309, a spokesperson for Iran's health ministry said.
However, there are fears the number of deaths and cases in the Islamic Republic could be much higher than has been reported.
Iran's president Hassan Rouhani has been force to defend the Government's response to the coronavirus in the country.
Authorities have been slow to introduce strict measures adopted by other countries in the region and it is only in recent days that Iran has ordered the closure of nonessential businesses and banned travel between cities.
Rouhani said authorities had to consider the effect of mass quarantine measures on Iran’s beleaguered economy that is suffering heavily under US sanctions.
Iran has urged the international community to lift sanctions and is seeking a $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.