Spain becomes first Western Europe nation to hit coronavirus landmark

Spain hits the one million coronavirus mark

Spain becomes first Western Europe nation to hit coronavirus landmark
Coronavirus testing

Spain on Wednesday became the first country in western Europe to report more than one million confirmed COVID-19 infections as the continent grapples with a resurgence in cases.

The Ministry of Health reported 16,973 new cases in the past 24 hours taking the nation's total number of cases since the beginning of the pandemic to 1,005,295.

The ministry has also reported a total of 34,366 Covid-19-related deaths in that time.

However, due to insufficient testing, asymptomatic cases and other mitigating factors, experts believe the actual numbers of infections and deaths are probably much higher.

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Authorities are scrambling to implement tougher measures to curb the rise in infections without having to resort to another total lockdown which contained the virus' spread in the first wave but devastated the economy.

The Spanish government declared a state of emergency in Madrid to enable it to impose an order to lock down the region while the regional government of northern Aragón announced it had closed the city limits of Zaragoza, Huesca and Teruel.

Navarra is set to become the first region to close its borders on Thursday, followed by La Rioja on Friday.

Spain's Health Minister Salvador Illa and regional heads of health are expected to meet on Thursday to discuss their responses and consider imposing nightly curfews to target late-night partying as a source of transmission.