Coronavirus cases rising in most Spanish regions, minister says

FILE PHOTO: A hospital staff member treats a patient suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Hospital Clinic, after Catalonia's government imposed new restrictions in an effort to control a COVID-19 third wave, in Barcelona Spain February 3, 2021. Picture taken February 3, 2021. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

The rate of diagnosed COVID-19 infections is rising in most Spanish regions led by the more contagious variant first detected in Britain, Health Minister Carolina Darias said on Wednesday.

"We are at a crucial moment. There is an increase, a slow one but still an increase of the incidence, and a prevalence of the Britain variant," she told a news conference.

The minister added the government was expecting the delivery of more than one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Nathan Allen; Editing by Andrei Khalip)