Spain prepares to ease lockdown, launches Covid-19 sample testing

Madrid, Apr 27 (efe-epa).- Spanish authorities were preparing to continue easing lockdown restrictions on Monday and launched a study to find infection rates of Covid-19 in the population.

The government has started an investigation to find out what proportion of residents have been affected by the disease by testing sample households.

Spain has been one of the worst affected countries by the coronavirus pandemic in the world and the transition back to social normality and economic recovery will be gradual.

Children were allowed to go outside for exercise from Sunday, the first time they had been able to leave their homes for more than six weeks.

Spain’s rate of infection and daily death toll have both been declining and authorities have said the restrictions could be relaxed further in the coming weeks.

Its health ministry reported 288 fatalities on Sunday, the lowest number in more than a month and a significant drop from the previous day.

Officials also registered 1,729 new infections which was lower than the 3,024 hospital discharges for the third consecutive day.

The total number of confirmed cases has surpassed 207,600 and more than 23,100 people have died in the country since the start of the outbreak.

Authorities have begun a seroprevalence study of the population to give a more accurate indication of how many people have contracted the disease.

Tests will be conducted on 36,000 randomly selected households, with an average of 2.5 members each, throughout the country.