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Spain will unleash robots capable of testing 80,000 patients a day into the heart of its coronavirus fight.

The Spanish government says it will deploy the machines that will increase testing from its current daily figure of between 15,000 and 20,000.

Raquel Yotti, head of Madrid's Health Institute Carlos III, said the plans to deploy the robots are already under way.

She spoke as Spain's death toll surpassed 1,300 and the number of cases reached nearly 25,000.

She said at a conference: “A plan to automate tests through robots has been already designed, and Spain has committed to buying four robots that will allow us to execute 80,000 tests per day."

It comes after the government in Spain warned that "the worst is yet to come".

(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said: “We have yet to receive the impact of the strongest, most damaging wave, which will test our material and moral capacities to the limit, as well as our spirit as a society."

It is the second hardest hit country in Europe behind Italy.

Madrid has been the worst-hit area in Spain, with 60 per cent of the nation's deaths.

In the UK, the death toll reached 233 while the number of cases has surpassed 5,000.

(Image: Getty Images)

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who dramatically ordered restaurants and pubs to shut this week, warned the NHS could become "overwhelmed".

He said: "Unless we act together, unless we make the heroic and collective national effort to slow the spread – then it is all too likely that our own NHS will be similarly overwhelmed.

"The Italians have a superb health-care system.

(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

"And yet their doctors and nurses have been completely overwhelmed by the demand."

He also urged people to avoid seeing their mums on Mother's Day on Sunday.

Johnson continued: "The single best present that we can give ... is to spare them the risk of catching a very dangerous disease."

(Image: Getty Images)

Yesterday, he urged people not to go out for one last night after ordering the closure of pubs, clubs and restaurants.

He said: “You may be tempted to go out tonight and I say to you please don’t.

"You may think that you are invincible, but there is no guarantee that you will get mild symptoms and you can still be a carrier of the disease and pass it on to others. We want you as far as possible to stay at home."