COVID-19 Second Wave: Spain First Country in Europe to Cross 1 Million Virus Cases
Madrid, October 21: Spain, the country worst affected by COVID-19 in Europe in terms of total caseload, also became the first in the continent to cross the 1 million-mark. The Spanish Health Ministry on Wednesday issued a statement to confirm that the nation's coronavirus case count has crossed 1,00,000. The announcement comes amid renewed restrictions in most parts of Spain to curb the pace of virus transmission. Pakistan Warns of New Lockdown as COVID-19 Mortality Rate Increases by 140%.
Spain, along with most other parts of Europe, is facing a second wave of the pandemic. Since the onset of Autumn, the number of cases have been picking up, and rising on daily basis. In the last 24 hours, a total of 16,973 new infections were recorded, according to the Worldometers tracker.
The per-day count in cases, in Spain, is nearly equivalent to that of March-April, when the country was among the worst-affected in the world. During the first month of COVID-19 being declared a global pandemic, Spain and Italy topped the chart of most fatalities. Later, the United States faced an unprecedented surge, and continues to remain the country with most coronavirus cases and deaths.
Second Wave of Virus in Spain
Health Minister Salvador Illa confirmed that the country is in dripped under the pandemic again, and if "tough measures" are not enacted, the second wave could be worse than the first phase of pandemic.
The federal government is imposing the State of Emergency to announce curfew in Madrid and other urban centres of the country. Necessitated movement outside the houses is being curtailed, and inter-district travel is strictly regulated.
While the number of cases are expected to surge over the next few days, the government is concentrating on minimising the loss of lives. Field hospitals are being set-up in various parts of the country again, similar to those that were installed in April-May, to provide critical care to the patients in high-risk group if the regular hospital beds are full.
On Tuesday, Spain recorded 218 fatalities, taking the overall count of death to 34,210. While Spain is the worst-affected in terms of caseload, the United Kingdom continues to remain the country in Europe with the maximum number of deaths - 44,158.
