Madrid, March 27 (RHC)-- Spain’s health ministry has announced that it has suffered another record breaking day for COVID-19 deaths as 769 people fell victim to the disease in one day.  Health officials revealed on Friday morning that the number of fatalities jumped to 4,858, while the number of confirmed infections in the country has risen from 56,188 to 64,059.

The rate of infection has seemingly slowed, however, with the 7,871 jump in new cases making a 14 percent increase on the previous day.  That compares favorably to the 18 percent increase announced on Thursday and Wednesday’s 20 percent surge.   The mortality rate in Spain remains stubbornly high at roughly 7.5 percent.

Over 2,000 deaths have been confirmed in the capital Madrid, while Catalonia and the Basque country have recorded 880 and 180 deaths respectively.  The number of cases has dramatically increased in Spain in recent weeks and the Spanish health ministry said on Friday that 9,637 people have been cured of infection.

Meanwhile, Spanish authorities are claiming that coronavirus tests purchased from China are faulty, as their sub-30 percent accuracy level renders them unusable.  As a result, Spain will be returning the first batch of testing kits it received from China, where the coronavirus outbreak first began late last year. 

The Chinese Embassy confirmed that the faulty devices were not part of the €423 million deal between the two countries, which includes some 5.5 million testing kits.  The embassy claimed that the kits had come from an unlicensed provider, Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology.  Spain reportedly bought 340,000 kits from the company.