Madrid, Jan 5 (IANS): Spain's Ministry of Health on Monday reported 30,579 new coronavirus cases and 241 deaths during the New Year period between December 31 and January 4.

The country now has a total of 19,58,844 cases since the start of the pandemic, while 51,078 people have lost their lives to the virus, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the incidence of the virus has risen to 272 cases per 1,00,000 inhabitants over the past 14 days, considerably higher than the level of 180 cases per 1,00,000 inhabitants at the start of December, according to the ministry.

Health Minister Salvador Illa warned that the impact of the pandemic is in an upward trend in Spain, asking the citizens to be responsible.

"We still have some difficult weeks. Until a significant part of the population is immunised, we must be very careful," he told a press conference.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorised coronavirus vaccines. Spain began its vaccination program on December 27.

A total of 232 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 60 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the US, according to information released by the World Health Organization on December 29.