Spain has reported no deaths from Covid-19 for the first time in a 24-hour period since the European outbreak began to take hold in March.
The emergency health response chief, Fernando Simon, said the development was “very encouraging” as he announced that in the same period, the number of new coronavirus infections in the country stood at 71.
The country reported its first two deaths from the disease on March 3 but its death toll jumped exponentially weeks later. At the peak of the outbreak, on April 2, Spain recorded 950 deaths in 24 hours. The official death toll now stands at 27,127, with 239,932 confirmed cases.
“We are in a very good place in the evolution of the pandemic,” Mr Simon said. “The statistics are following a trend. They are going in the right direction.”
Spain, along with Britain, France and Italy, was among the European countries worst hit by Covid-19.
As countries slowly move forward with relaxing strict lockdown measures, governments are also urging citizens to exercise caution.
France, like Spain, has had a sharp fall in Covid-19 cases and deaths. The French health ministry said on Monday that 31 coronavirus deaths were recorded in hospitals in the past 24 hours.
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A total of 28,836 people have died in France from coronavirus since the start of the outbreak.
As the country moved to reopen parks, bars, restaurants and beaches on Tuesday, the ministry said “good news should not make us forget the danger of the virus”, saying restrictions must not be relaxed too quickly.
The British government has been criticised for its slow response to the outbreak. The country has the highest death toll from the disease in Europe at 39,127, and 277,738 cases have been confirmed since the start of the pandemic.
Despite the high number, Britain on Monday reported its lowest number of Covid-19 fatalities since the end of March.
Speaking at a House of Lords Science and Technology Committee meeting, Professor Neil Ferguson said transmission from Spain and Italy in late February and early March meant the epidemic was further ahead than modellers anticipated.
“One thing the genetic data is showing us now is most chains of transmission still existing in the UK originated in Spain and, to some extent, Italy,” he said.
Mr Ferguson, an epidemiologist who was forced to quit as a UK government adviser in May for breaching lockdown rules, said the country’s mortality rate had reached higher levels because the disease had arrived more quickly than initially thought.
