Worst 24-hour death toll takes Spain past 10,000 death mark

MADRID - Spain suffered its highest number of deaths from COVID-19 in a 24-hour period, taking the total number of fatalities in the country to over 10,000, the Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Services confirmed Thursday.

A total of 10,003 people have died of the infectious disease in Spain as of Thursday, 950 more than the death toll of 9,053 on Wednesday, while the total number of COVID-19 cases rose by 8,102 to 110,238 over the past 24 hours.

A total of 54,113 people are in need of hospital treatment, an increase of 2,695 from Wednesday, with 6,092 requiring treatment in an intensive care unit -- an increase of 220 in the last 24-hour period.

Madrid and the Catalan Region continue to be the two worst-affected parts of Spain. Madrid passed the 4,000 death mark, with 4,175 deaths from a total number of 31,155 cases. The Catalan Region has registered 2,093 deaths from 21,804 cases.

There is good news regarding the number of Spaniards who have recovered from the disease, which rose to 26,743 -- with slightly more than 4,000 patients recovered over the past day.

Thursday also saw the publication of the monthly unemployment figures in Spain, which showed the harm the coronavirus crisis is doing to the Spanish economy. During March, 303,365 people lost their jobs, with 3,548,312 people now registered as unemployed.

Meanwhile, the number of people contributing to Spain's social security system fell by 833,979 with the lockdown imposed on the country on March 14 affecting small businesses and self-employed workers.

The slowdown in the economy was confirmed by data published by the Madrid Public Transport System, which indicated that the use of public transport fell by 93 percent compared with the same period in 2019.