Spain sees slight rise in new coronavirus deaths, cases

The Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Services on Wednesday confirmed a slight rise in the number of new deaths and cases of COVID-19 in the country.

The ministry said that 24,275 people have died from COVID-19 in Spain so far, with 325 deaths registered in the 24-hour period until 09:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) on Tuesday.

This is 24 more than the 301 deaths reported the previous day, but 110 fewer than a week ago, said the ministry.

There was a sharper increase in new cases of COVID-19 detected by PCR tests -- which discovers if the coronavirus is active in the body -- with 2,144 newly confirmed cases, taking the country's total to 212,917.

Wednesday also saw a record 6,399 patients confirmed to have recovered in the 24-hour period, taking the total number of recoveries to 108,947.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday announced his government's plan for rolling back the restrictions that have been in place since March 15 to stop the spread of the pandemic.

Sanchez said restrictions will be relaxed in four different stages, each of which will last for at least two weeks, and that the pace restrictions will be lifted will be "asymmetrical" and differ for each of Spain's provinces depending on the presence of the virus.