Spain's Covid-19 cases exceed 7 mn with nearly 90,000 deaths

Madrid, Jan 9 (IANS) Spain's confirmed Covid-19 cases has passed the 7 million benchmark and the death toll is likely to reach 90,000 soon, according to the latest figures published by the Ministry of Health.

The data, which was published late on Friday night, showed 7,164,906 people have been infected by Covid-19, with 242,440 new cases reported in the 48-hour period between Wednesday till Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The same period also saw the confirmation of 97 more deaths in the country due to the virus, lifting the death toll since the start of the pandemic to 89,934.

Spain is suffering the sixth wave of infections due to the Omicron variant, with the last million cases confirmed in just 10 days since the country crossed the 6-million cases mark on Dec. 28 and with a 46 percent increase in cases over the past week.

The 14-day incidence of the virus continued to rise and hit a new high of 2,722 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Friday.

Children returned to school on January 10 with the Health Ministry on Friday agreeing that if five Covid-19 cases are detected in a class, then all the children in the class will be subject to quarantine.