Virus spike in Spain spurs warnings
Britain places country back on its unsafe list
BARCELONA, Spain — Nightclubs, bars and beaches — some of Spain’s most beloved summer venues — are facing new lockdown restrictions after turning into coronavirus hot spots, and some European nations are warning citizens not to visit the country.
The northeast regions of Catalonia and Aragón host the three most-worrying virus clusters in Spain, prompting authorities to tighten restrictions in Barcelona, in a rural area around Lleida and in Zaragoza that were relaxed only a month ago when
Spain had its devastating outbreak in check.
Britain put Spain back on its unsafe list on Sunday, announcing hours earlier that travelers arriving in the U.K. from Spain must quarantine for 14 days. Norway also ordered a 10day quarantine for those returning from the Iberian Peninsula.
France and Belgium are recommending that travelers ditch plans to spend their summer vacations in
Barcelona and its nearby beaches, which have seen crowds too massive to allow for social distancing.
Tui, the U.K.’S biggest tour operator, said Sunday it had canceled all flights due to depart to mainland Spain until Aug. 9, but it has maintained flights and travel packages for trips to Spain’s Balearic and Canary Islands.
Travelers were caught off guard by Britain’s move: Even U.K. Transport Minister Grant Shapps is on holiday in Spain.
“I think that it is extreme. If you only come for one day, no way,” José González, a Spaniard heading to his home in London, said at Madrid’s airport. “We will have to see what happens next. We will have to respect it, and that’s that. You can’t do anything else.”
Spain reported over 900 new daily infections on Thursday and Friday as authorities warned that the country, which lost at least 28,400 lives before getting its outbreak under control, could be facing the start of a second major onslaught.
Catalonia ordered all nightlife venues to close for 15 days and applied a midnight curfew on bars in and around Barcelona and Lleida, hours after French Prime Minister Jean Castex urged French citizens not to visit Catalonia because of the upticks in new infections.
In other developments:
Pope Francis led pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the weekly Sunday blessing in a round of applause for elderly people suffering from loneliness during the pandemic. Francis, on the feast day for Jesus’s maternal grandparents Saints Anne and Joachim, urged the faithful to consider every elderly person his or her own grandparent.
Temperatures were taken and anti-bacterial gel applied before the faithful walked through a disinfecting arch set up in front of centuries-old wood-and-stone doors. Mexico City’s Roman Catholic churches, including its main cathedral, began celebrating Mass again Sunday after three months of pandemic lockdown.
Vietnam on Sunday reimposed restrictions in one of its most popular beach destinations after a second person tested positive for COVID-19, the first locally transmitted cases in the country in over three months.
China reported 46 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the highest daily tally in more than a month, as it took steps to stem recent outbreaks that have infected more than 160 people at opposite ends of the country.