Spain Becomes First Nation in Western Europe With 1 Million Virus Cases
Authorities in Spain struggle to control fresh coronavirus outbreaks and contemplate a curfew for the capital Madrid.
(Bloomberg) -- Spain became the first country in Western Europe to surpass 1 million coronavirus infections, as authorities struggle to control fresh outbreaks and contemplate a curfew for the capital Madrid.
Some 6,114 new cases were detected in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,005,295, according to Health Ministry data published Wednesday. Russia has the most infections on the continent with more than 1.4 million, with France fast closing in on the 1 million mark and the U.K. next with more 760,000 cases, figures from Johns Hopkins University show.
A curfew in Madrid would be the latest move by European governments to tighten restrictions amid an unrelenting spread of the disease. The capital was already hit with new restrictions this month when Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared a state of emergency for the Madrid region, which has a population of almost 7 million.
Sanchez has come under fire for his handling of the pandemic, and the Socialist leader faces a confidence vote on Thursday brought by the far-right Vox party over his stewardship of the country.
The motion is set to be comfortably defeated because Vox has failed to rally much support among other parties, but the event is putting the growing bitterness in Spanish politics on full public display. Sanchez has clashed repeatedly with the president of the Madrid region, who belongs to the main opposition conservative party, over the best way to deal with the virus.
Earlier this year, Spain was briefly the European nation with the most daily deaths, but then imposed the continent’s strictest lockdown and brought contagion levels way down by June.
When it was lifted in the summer, infections began to surge in what authorities mostly blame on a lack of adherence to hygiene and distancing rules in family and social gatherings.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.