The number of deaths has risen by 738 in just 24 hours to a total of 3,434 - a record spike for Spain.
By comparison, China has officially reported 3,285 deaths, while Italy – the worst affected country – has 6,820.
Spain's prime minister will later ask MPs to extend his country’s state of emergency for another two weeks.
Lawmakers are expected to agree to Pedro Sánchez's request for lockdown measures to stay in place until 11 April. Under the rules, people are banned from leaving home except for buying essential supplies and medicines, or for work.
Meanwhile, Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo has tested positive for the virus, the government says. She was admitted to hospital on Sunday with respiratory symptoms.
Globally there are nearly 440,000 cases of the virus, with deaths approaching 20,000 and more than 100,000 people having recovered, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
On Wednesday the UN said the virus was "threatening the whole of humanity" as it launched a $2bn (£1.7bn) appeal for the world's poorest people.
"Global action and solidarity are crucial. Individual country responses are not going to be enough," UN Secretary-General António Guterres said.
Figures released by the health ministry on Wednesday showed that in just 24 hours, Spain’s national death toll rose by 738. Its number of cases soared by 7,973.
These are the highest figures for Spain in a single day. The country now has 47,610 confirmed cases.
Catalonia accounts for close to 10,000 of those, while the Basque Country and Andalusia both have more than 3,000 cases. But the worst-affected region is the area around the capital Madrid, which has recorded 14,597 cases.
Madrid’s municipal funeral home announced on Tuesday it had stopped collecting victims of Covid-19 – the disease caused by the coronavirus – while the city’s major ice rink will be used as a temporary mortuary.
On Monday, soldiers in Spain brought in to tackle the outbreak found retirement home residents abandoned and even dead in their beds. The defence ministry said that staff at some care homes had left after the coronavirus was detected.
On Wednesday local media reported that more than 20 residents who were confirmed to have the virus or had symptoms of it had died at the Fundación Santísima Virgen y San Celedonio care home in Madrid's Chamartín district. Some 50 members of staff were in isolation.
There have been more than 435,000 confirmed cases worldwide. Europe is now the centre of the global outbreak.
Leaders of nine EU countries have called for the 27-member bloc to raise funds through a “common debt instrument” to tackle the pandemic.
"In particular, we need to work on a common debt instrument... to raise funds on the market on the same basis and to the benefits of all member states," said the letter, which was signed by the leaders of Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Portugal.