Spain registered a record number of deaths from coronavirus in the last 24 hours as the government tightened restrictions on movement to slow the spread of a pandemic that’s proving hard to contain.
The government said 838 people died on Sunday, bringing the total to 6,528.
Spain’s health care system is at breaking point after the number of people sent to intensive care on Saturday surpassed the official capacity of 4,404 beds. Madrid, the epicenter of the outbreak, has created a temporary hospital in the city’s main conference center to handle the overflow.
Spain has been in a lockdown for two weeks but on Saturday Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tightened those measures even further by ordering non-essential workers to remain in their homes over the Easter period. He has called for a European “Marshall Plan,” a reference to the U.S. aid program credited with pulling Western Europe out of its post-World War II economic devastation, as members of the EU remain divided over how to address the economic fallout from the pandemic.
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