Spain’s death toll from the novel coronavirus topped 18,000 on Tuesday, as the rise in new infections dropped to its lowest level since the country imposed a nationwide lockdown last month. The 567 new deaths reported by the health ministry were slightly up from Monday’s death toll and they take the total number of fatalities to 18,056 — officially third in the world behind the United States and Italy.
The number of new infections rose by just over 3,045, or 1.8 percent, to 172,451, the smallest increase since the country of around 47 million people imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 14 to curb the spread of the virus. Health authorities say Spain has overcome the peak of the coronavirus, after registering its highest death toll of 950 people on April 2.