Spanish authorities on Sunday declared a nationwide state of emergency and curfew excluding the Canary Islands in a bid to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 infections.

AFP reports Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to have announced the new measures that will stay in place until the beginning of May.

"The situation we are going through is extreme," he stressed.

The new measures were agreed earlier on Sunday at a cabinet meeting convened to respond to calls from the regions for powers to impose curfews to tackle the spread of the virus.

The curfew will run from 11:00PM until 6:00AM.

By Saturday afternoon, Spain had reported 1,046,132 COVID-19 cases and 34,752 deaths, according to figures from the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

The country's caseload is the seventh-highest worldwide, only eclipsed by tallies registered by the United States, India, Brazil, Russia, France and Argentina.