Spain sees record high single-day deaths from coronavirus

MADRID - Spain registered another record number of deaths from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours between midday on Friday and midday on Saturday, the Spanish Ministry for Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare confirmed.

The daily figures published by the Health Ministry show that 832 people succumbed to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Saturday's number of deaths followed the previous record of 769 deaths reported on Friday, bringing the country's total number of fatalities to 5,690.

Meanwhile, the number of people confirmed to be infected by the coronavirus has increased from Friday's 64,059 to 72,248 on Saturday, a rise of 8,189 over the last 24 hours.

Of the 72,248 registered cases, 40,630 have required hospital treatment with 4,575 needing intensive care.

So far, 12,285 COVID-19 patients have recovered, up by 31.3 percent on Friday's 9,357, according to the Health Ministry.

Madrid continues to be the worst affected part of Spain with 21,520 cases and 2,757 deaths (making up over 48 percent of all the deaths in Spain.)

The Health Ministry also confirmed that the first shipment of 1.2 million face masks purchased by the Spanish government arrived at Madrid's Barajas Airport in the early hours of Saturday morning. The ministry explained that the masks will be distributed among health workers, the security forces and workers in the transport sector.

The Spanish air force also confirmed on Saturday that an A400 airbus took off from Zaragoza to Shanghai to bring back another shipment of sanitary material in a round trip which will last 33 hours.