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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday announced that his government would have an action plan to deal with the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Sanchez made his announcement after presiding over a meeting on the coronavirus in Madrid. He said the plan would be put into effect "as soon as possible", but he didn't elaborate.
Sanchez asked citizens to follow health advice "down to the last word".
He also sent a tweet saying "We have a plan to face COVID-19, which we will put into effect with social agencies. We have one of the best public health systems in the world, with excellent professionals," he wrote.
The meeting was held on a day when the number of confirmed cases of the virus in Spain rose from just under 600 on Sunday to over 1,000, with death toll increasing from 10 to 26.
Cases in and around the capital city Madrid have almost doubled over the last 24 hours to 463, while the regional authority of Basque confirmed on Monday that schools in the city of Vitoria in northern Spain will remain closed for the next 15 days to prevent the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile the Spanish Ibex-35 stock market suffered a seven percent loss in Monday trading, due to falling oil prices and the increasing fear of a global recession.
Cristiana Narbona, president of Sanchez's Socialist Party (PSOE), admitted that "measures" needed to be taken and invited opposition parties to offer their proposals.
Despite the sharp rise in coronavirus cases, Narbona insisted that the government was "keeping up to date" in order to have an "adequate" but not "extreme" response to the crisis.
(XINHUA)
