Spain has no daily virus deaths for 1st time in 3 months

Customers sit at a terrace bar in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 31, 2020. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says he will ask Spain’s Parliament for a final two-week extension of the nation’s state of emergency that has allowed the government to take lockdown measures to control its coronavirus outbreak. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Spain has recorded no coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours for the first time since the beginning of March, a senior health ministry spokesman said Monday.

“Today we have received no deaths with the date of death from yesterday,” Fernando Simon, head of the Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies told journalists. The number of new cases had also fallen, he added.

Spain has recorded new deaths every day since March 3, though the first death there from the virus in fact dates back to February 13.

It is one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic, having recorded 27,127 deaths from 239,638 cases notified, according to the latest ministry figures Monday.

Spain had become very fast at detecting cases, said Simon.

But he warned against any failure to respect the existing restrictions on mass gatherings, still in force despite a gradual relaxation of what was one of the world’s strictest lockdowns.