THE CORONAVIRUS DEATH toll in Spain has surged over 9,000 after a record 864 deaths in 24 hours, with the number of confirmed cases passing the 100,000 mark, the government has said. 

Spain has the world’s second-highest death toll after Italy, with the virus so far claiming 9,053 lives and the number of confirmed cases reaching 102,136.

But on a day-to-day basis, the rate of new infections continued its downward trend, showing an increase of just over 8% compared with nearly 11% yesterday, health ministry figures showed. 

And the death rate has also slowed, from 27% a week ago to 10.5% today, with officials saying the data appear to show the epidemic is reaching its peak. 

But officials have warned that even if the epidemic is peaking, the pressure on the intensive care system would be subject to a lag of at least a week or longer, with hospitals likely to reach crisis point by the end of this week or early next.

Madrid remains the worst-hit region, with 3,865 deaths and nearly 30,000 cases, leaving hospitals and mortuaries overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, the UK has recorded another 563 coronavirus-related deaths, bringing the total to 2,352.

The total is 31% higher than yesterday.

It took 17 days for the number in the UK to pass 200, and has taken a further 11 days to pass 2,000.

The number of people tested in the UK for coronavirus has passed 150,000. The total by 9am today was 152,979.

On average around 8,000 new people were tested a day in the seven days up to today. In the previous seven days the daily average was around 5,800.

The total number of confirmed cases in the UK stands at 29,474, as of 9am today.

A week ago, on 25 March, the total was 9,529.

Includes reporting by Press Association and hay© – AFP 2020