Another 674 people have died of coronavirus in Spain in the past day, the lowest daily rise in percentage terms since early March.

The country has now seen 12,418 deaths from its devastating outbreak, the most anywhere in the world apart from Italy.

But the evidence strongly suggests that the nation is through the worst of the pandemic, with the pace of new cases and deaths decelerating.

The Health Ministry’s data shows there are now 80,261 active cases of COVID-19 in Spain, an increase of 1,488 from Saturday – but also the smallest daily rise since March 17. The rise in the number of new cases has been declining in percentage terms since March 24.

However, there was an uptick of 329 in the number of people admitted to intensive care units since the pandemic began – compared to Saturday’s number of 116.

The ministry also reported that 38,080 have now recovered from the virus – nearly 4,000 more than the number reported Saturday. For the first time since statistics were made available the daily increase in active cases was under 2%.