Spain-Madrid braces for partial lockdown as COVID-19 outbreak surges

Nearly a million Madrid residents were bracing Sunday for a partial lockdown as Spanish authorities seek to put a brake on the second wave of coronavirus.

The restrictions, which kick off Monday for two weeks, affect 850,000 people living mainly in densely-populated, low-income neighbourhoods in the south – or 13 percent of the population in and around the capital.

“We’re concerned with the data we’re seeing because the number of cases is double that of the national average and the number of hospital admissions… is triple the national average,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a television interview Saturday.

But he stressed he was not contemplating a national lockdown.

(AFP)