Madrid's massive annual Gay Pride march, which was scheduled to be held on July 4, has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic, organizers said on Tuesday.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez Perez-Castejon arrives for the EU summit at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, December 12, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

The event will be "postponed due to the exceptional circumstances we are experiencing" since "people's health and safety is the priority," the organizing committee said in a statement.

The march "will take place when the sanitary and security conditions are adequate and this is guaranteed by health authorities and security forces," it added.

The Spanish capital's annual gay pride march is one of the largest in the world, drawing hundreds of thousands of people and dozens of floats.

Madrid and the rest of Spain have been on a lockdown since March 14 to try to curb the spread of coronavirus, with people only allowed out of their homes for essential reasons like buying food and medicine.

Spain has so far lost 2,696 people to the virus, with 60 percent of the deaths in Madrid and the surrounding region.

With more than 42,050 confirmed cases of the disease, Spain is the second most affected country in Europe by the pandemic after Italy.

With the numbers still spiraling, the Socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday sought parliamentary approval to extend the state of emergency for an extra two weeks, until April 11.

His government has come under fire from the right for allowing and encouraging people to participate in a massive Women's Day march in Madrid on March 8, just a week before the country went into lockdown.