Spain becomes third country to report over 20,000 Covid-19 deaths

However, the increase in infections has slowed in recent days while the number deemed cured has risen to nearly 75,000.

Madrid The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Spain, the country hit hardest by the crisis after the US and Italy, exceeded 20,000 on Saturday. A total of 20,043 people have now succumbed to the disease, which killed 565 people in Spain in the past 24 hours, slightly down from 585 reported on Friday.

Health officials say Spain has passed the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak which killed up to 950 people on April 2, and pressure has eased on hospitals. (AP file photo)

The number of declared cases in the country has risen to 191,726.

However, the increase in infections has slowed in recent days while the number deemed cured has risen to nearly 75,000.

Health officials say Spain has passed the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak which killed up to 950 people on April 2, and pressure has eased on hospitals.

Meanwhile, Turkey overtook Iran on Saturday evening in terms of the number of cases after reporting 3,783 new infections. Turkey has so far recorded 82,329 cases, while Iran has 80,868 confirmed infections.

Globally the total number of coronavirus cases has gone up to at least 2.2 million, while more than 157,000 fatalities have been reported.