This from my colleague Sam Jones in Madrid:
A spokeswoman for the Spanish government declined to comment on the reported quarantine measures, instead referring the Guardian to comments made on Friday by the foreign minister, Arancha González Laya.
In an interview with CNN, the minister said Spain was one of the countries with the “most controls and mechanisms for identifying outbreaks” and played down suggestions of a second wave of Covid-19.
“We’re not worried; we’re identifying cases and isolating them to cut off transmission,” said González Laya.
“As long as we don’t have a vaccine or a treatment, this is what the new normality will be like. We ask citizens to comply with the restrictions and behave in a responsible manner.”
She added: “There isn’t a second outbreak but there are one-off outbreaks. Our strategy is to detect and isolate those outbreaks.”
The minister also noted that other countries were experiencing similar situations.
Earlier this week, Spanish health authorities said they were dealing with 283 active outbreaks, many of them in the northeastern regions of Catalonia and Aragón.
While they have acknowledged that a second wave may have hit, they insist all outbreaks are being swiftly detected and isolated.
On Friday, the health ministry logged 922 new Covid-19 cases – slightly down from 971 over the previous 24 hours.
María José Sierra, the deputy head of Spain’s centre for health emergencies, said that while the curve had been flattened, “community transmission” was being seen in north-eastern areas.
“It could already be a second wave, but that’s not the most important thing,” Sierra told reporters on Thursday. “The most important thing is that we keep following what’s going on, see what measures are necessary, and take them early.”
She also said people needed to remember the incidence of the virus had tripled in just two weeks, from 8.76 cases per 100,000 people on 3 July to 27.39 per 100,000. “Obviously, the curve is going up, but let’s wait to see what kind of situation we’re in,” she added.
The announcement of a compulsory, two-week quarantine for returning British visitors will only place even greater strain on the beleaguered Spanish tourist sector, which has already been badly hit by the coronavirus.
The sector generates 12% of the country’s GDP and Britons make up the largest national group among Spain’s foreign visitors. More than 18 million Britons visited the country last year, accounting for almost a quarter of all foreign visitors.
