Health authorities also accounted for an additional 584 deaths in the last 24 hours attributed to covid-19, bringing the total number of deaths to 61,386.

The daily number of new cases dropped from Thursday to Friday from 29,960 to 28,565 and that of deaths rose from 432 to 584.

The level of accumulated incidence (people infected) in Spain has been falling for more than a week, having gone from Thursday to today from 783 to 751 cases diagnosed per 100,000 inhabitants in the previous 14 days.

The regions with the highest levels are those of the Valencian Community (1,190), Castile and Leon (1,117) and La Rioja (1,078).

In the last 24 hours, 2,683 people with the disease were admitted to hospitals across the country (2,628 on Thursday), of which 497 in Madrid, 482 in Andalusia, 369 in Catalonia and 323 in the Valencian Community.

On the other hand, there are 28,586 people hospitalized with the covid-19 (29,276 on Thursday), which corresponds to 22% of the beds, of which 4,795 patients in intensive care units (4,823), 44% of the beds in this service.

The health services of the Community of Madrid today confirmed the first case in the region of the variant detected in Brazil of covid-19: a 44-year-old man from the South American country that entered Spain on January 29 last at Madrid international airport .

The man landed with a negative PCR test done in Brazil, but on his arrival at the airport he performed another one with a positive result for antigens.

The downward trend in infections has encouraged three autonomous communities to slightly ease the restrictions in place to fight the pandemic, although a more demanding majority has opted to stick to current measures.

In the middle of an electoral campaign to renew the regional parliament, Catalonia opted for a regional (county) confinement instead of the municipal one as of next Monday.

For its part, the Community of Madrid has decided to increase the number of people who can sit at a table on a terrace from four to six.

Extremadura (which borders Portugal) has extended the opening hours of the trade but maintains sanitary fences (confinement) at the level of the municipalities.

The rest of the communities, in general, maintain the restrictions in force, with only minor changes, such as the survey of the sanitary fence at the municipal level.