AKIPRESS.COM - Spain has become the third country to confirm more cases of coronavirus than China - as its number of deaths rose by 812 in a day to reach a total of 7,340, Sky News reports. 

Confirmed COVID-19 cases have increased by 6,398 since Sunday to reach 85,195 in total, Spain's health ministry said.

The country has now joined the United States and Italy in having more coronavirus cases than China, which had confirmed 82,156 cases as of Monday.

At midday on Monday, a minute's silence was held in Madrid, Spain's hardest hit city, for those who have died as an adagio was heard in one of the capital's best known squares, Puerta del Sol.

Monday's figures for those who have died in Spain were slightly less than Sunday, when 838 people died - the highest number yet for the country.

Authorities stepped up the country's 15-day lockdown on Monday, with a new two-week period of "hibernation" to alleviate pressure on the healthcare system, a Spanish cabinet member said.

Only workers in hospitals, pharmacies, the food supply chain and other essential industries are allowed to work until the end of Easter, in mid-April, while everyone else has been asked to stay at home and scale back their work.