Spain sees slight rise in new COVID-19 deaths, toll at 21,282

The Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare confirmed on Tuesday that 21,282 people in the country have lost their lives due to COVID-19.

The daily information published by the ministry showed that 430 people died from the coronavirus in the 24-hour period until 21:00 hours local time on Monday.

This is 31 more than the 399 deaths confirmed for the previous 24-hour period but Tuesday's rising numbers were due to delays in compiling data over the weekend.

A total of 3,968 new cases were also confirmed on Tuesday, bringing the tally of infections to 204,178. With a two percent new cases in the total number of cases, the rate of infection continues to fall.

"The evolution (of the number of cases) is correct, it is progressively descending, although there are Communities with an important number of cases," explained Fernando Simon, director of the Spanish Coordinating Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies at the Ministry of Health.

Simon highlighted that Tuesday's percentage increase of just 2 percent in new cases meant that Spain had seen 1,000 fewer new cases than a week ago and "the tendency is for a continued reduction," he added.

A total of 7,460 people have lost their lives from 57,997 confirmed cases in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, while there have been 4,152 deaths from 43,112 cases in Catalonia.

The figures also showed that 86 percent of the 21,282 deaths in Spain have been people aged 70 or over, while 94.9 percent of all fatalities were people aged 60 or over.

Meanwhile, the number of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 in Spain has risen to 82,514.