MADRID, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 death toll in Spain has passed the 40,000 mark, showed the Health Ministry data Wednesday.

The country's death toll rose by 349 in the last 24 hours to a total of 40,105, while the total number of cases increased by 19,096 to 1,417,096, according to the ministry.

Speaking at a daily press conference, Fernando Simon, Director of the Coordination Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies at the Health Ministry, said the "incidence of the virus was stabilizing," but he warned that it would need time for this to be reflected in a fall in the number of people in hospital and that "it is possible that the number of deaths continues to rise for several more days."

The government also confirmed Wednesday that as of Nov. 23, Spain will demand a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of departure for all people traveling from countries considered to be "high risk" COVID-19 zones.

For EU countries and those in the Schengen travel area, whether a country is considered to be high risk will depend on the risk map offered by the European Center for Disease Control, while countries outside of those areas would be considered high risk if they had a 14-day COVID-19 incidence of over 150 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.