Spain's total number of coronavirus infections surged past two million on Thursday as cases jumped following the Christmas holidays, government figures showed on Thursday.

The milestone came as the health ministry announced another 42,360 new cases over the past 48 hours, taking the overall figure to 2,024,904, although seroprevalence studies that test people using a blood serum sample suggest the figure is far higher.

-The total number of confirmed cases... already exceeds two million today," said Maria Jose Serra, deputy head of the health ministry's emergencies unit, indicating the number of infections was "clearly on the increase".

Over the same 48-hour period, Spain also saw another 245 deaths, raising the overall toll to 51,675. And the incidence rate also shot up, rising from 296 cases per 100,000 people to 321, the figures showed.

On October 21, Spain became the first European country to record a million coronavirus infections, with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez admitting just days later the real number was three times higher.

And in mid-December, a new seroprevalence study suggested around 4.7 million people had been infected by the virus -- or around 10 percent of Spain's population.

Although the numbers have shot up, prompting most of Spain's 17 regions to impose new curbs on public life, the government has remained adamant it won't impose a new lockdown.

With infection spreading rapidly across Europe, many countries have been forced into a second or even a third lockdown, but Spain has so far insisted the restrictions put in place under its state of emergency are sufficien