Spain surpasses one million coronavirus infections as western Europe falls back into lockdown

Spain has become the first European Union nation to record a million coronavirus infections, official data showed on Wednesday, as the government mulled fresh restrictions on public life to curb the spread of the disease. The country recorded 16,973 confirmed cases of Covid-19 over the past 24 hours, the health ministry announced, taking the total to 1,005,295 since its first case was diagnosed on January 31 on the remote island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands. Of this number, 34,366 people have died, with 156 more deaths were recorded in the previous 24 hours.