The daily number of coronavirus deaths has fallen in Spain for a fourth consecutive day, boosting hopes the country has passed the outbreak’s peak.
Monday’s increase of 637 deaths means 13,055 have died in total.
Spain’s population has been living under severe restrictions for more than three weeks, with lockdown measures now extended toward the end of April.
The nation has more than 135,000 confirmed cases, the most in Europe, but new infections have been slowing.
Spanish officials plan to widen coronavirus testing to include those without symptoms.
“It is important to know who is contaminated to be able to gradually lift Spanish citizens’ lockdown,” Foreign Minister Arancha González said in a TV interview.
Slowing death rates in a number of the worst-hit European countries, including Italy, France and Germany, are raising hope that strict social distancing measures are curbing the spread of Covid-19 – the disease caused by the virus.
Austria’s chancellor announced on Monday plans to start easing some of the restrictions in place because of the pandemic.
There have been more than 1.2 million cases and 70,000 deaths confirmed around the world since the virus emerged in China in December, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Source:Â bbc.com