MADRID, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Around 5.21 percent of the Spanish population has been infected by the novel coronavirus, according to the second part of a major study into the prevalence of the virus which was published on Thursday by the Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare.

The finding is only slightly different from the results in the first stage of the investigation, which were published on May 13 and showed 5 percent of those tested had been infected by COVID-19.

Blood samples were taken from a representative sample of 63,564 people of all ages from every region of Spain between May 18 and June 2 in order to look for antibodies of the coronavirus and determine the proportion of the population that has developed immunity.

The study once again showed that the different parts of Spain have been affected differently by the virus, with a much greater proportion of the population infected in central Spain than other parts of the country.

About 11.4 percent of those tested in the Madrid region showed the presence of antibodies, while the levels were even higher in the provinces of Segovia (12.6 percent), Cuenca (14.2 percent), and Soria (14.7 percent).

Meanwhile, Huelva in the southwest of Spain had a prevalence of just 1.2 percent, the Balearic Islands 1.5 percent, and the northern region of Asturias 1.6 percent.

In the press conference where the data was presented, the Director of the National Center of Epidemiology Marina Pollan said the results were "expected," adding that "a third of the infected people do not have symptoms." Enditem

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