Fears rise that Spain is going same way as Italy as virus cases skyrocket

Irish warned against any non-essential travel to country amid worsening crisis

SPAIN has declared a state of emergency as it steps up measures designed to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has also advised Irish citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to the country, particularly Madrid.

The World Health Organisation has now declared Europe to be the ‘epicentre’ of the global crisis as fears grow that Spain is going the same way as Italy.

Authorities in Madrid recommended that the city’s residents do not leave their homes to contain the spread of the virus and Catalonia requested a regional lockdown last night.

The Spanish government has ordered the closure of bars, restaurants and nightclubs in popular tourist hotspots while police set up roadblocks to stop people moving between cities. Spain has the highest number of coronavirus cases in Europe after Italy – and yesterday announced a near 50% surge in deaths caused by the virus.

As 250 people died in Italy yesterday – the highest number of deaths in one day, taking the total to 1,266 – Spanish health authorities confirmed 4,200 cases, with half of them in Madrid. They estimate the total could more than double by next week.

The WHO said Europe had ‘more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China’.

‘Europe has now become the epicentre of the pandemic,’ WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. He called on countries to ‘find, isolate, test and treat every case, to break the chains of transmission’. ‘Do not just let this fire burn,’ he said. ‘Any country that looks at the experience of other countries with large epidemics and thinks “that won’t happen to us” is making a deadly mistake.’

In Spain, UK tourist Mike Jarman from Birmingham was on his way to meet friends at a pub in Benidorm, where all bars and restaurants were due to close at midnight last night. He said: ‘I’m on the second day of my holiday. It was meant to be a week of fun away with some mates but this is going to change everything.’

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said the military would be brought in as his country adopted an Italian-style lockdown to combat coronavirus. He added: ‘It’s an emergency that affects the life and health of all. The government is going to protect all citizens.’

The drastic measure allows authorities to quarantine infected

‘Europe has become centre of pandemic’ ‘It’s hitting people in the face today’

people, ration goods, and take over private hospitals. It has already seen pubs, clubs, discos, gyms and sports facilities ordered to close in several tourist destinations, including Majorca, Ibiza and La Manga.

The usually bustling capital of Madrid was largely deserted yesterday as the city imposed a lockdown. More than 60,000 people across four towns near Barcelona were confined to their homes yesterday

Benidorm businesswoman Karen Maling Cowles said: ‘Lock-ins are banned and bars who organise them will be fined. The word is still getting around because it’s happening so fast. It’s really hitting people in the face today.’