MADRID • Just seven weeks after bringing its first coronavirus wave under control, experts say Spain is once again in a "critical" situation, with the worst infection rate in Western Europe.
The country reported an average of 4,923 new daily cases of Covid-19 during the last seven days, a higher number than that of Britain, France, Germany and Italy combined, according to a tally compiled by Agence France-Presse based on official figures.
Spain has 95 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 24 in France, 17 in Britain, 13 in Germany and just eight in Italy.
The spike has led a growing list of countries to impose restrictions on travel to Spain, which has nearly 323,000 confirmed cases of the disease, the highest number in Western Europe and the 11th-highest in the world.
Dr Salvador Macip, an expert in health sciences at Catalonia's Open University, said: "It's a critical moment, we are right at a point where things can get better or worse.
"This means we have to pull out all the stops to curb outbreaks before they become more serious."
There are currently more than 500 outbreak clusters in Spain, according to the Health Ministry.
Mr Fernando Simon, the ministry's emergencies coordinator, acknowledged on Monday that there are cases of community transmission in some places that are "not perfectly controlled", but he said they had "gradually subsided" in recent days.
In mid-March, Spain imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe, with people allowed outside only to buy food, seek medical care, briefly walk their pets or go to work if they could not do so remotely.
When the lockdown measures were completely lifted on June 21, the country reported just 238 new infections and it had just eight cases per 100,000 people.
But infections have surged since the first week of last month, in part because the government "rushed" to open the economy "surely thinking about tourism", a pillar of the Spanish economy, said Dr Joan Cayla, the head of Barcelona's tuberculosis investigation unit, which now focuses on Covid-19.
Dr Macip added that several outbreak clusters have been reported among seasonal farm workers - who often live in cramped conditions - since the summer harvest season began, helping to fuel the rise in cases.
The start of warm weather has also led people to relax a bit, in a country where physical contact and get-togethers with friends and family are common, he said.
This helped create a "perfect storm", Dr Macip added.
Spain recorded 950 Covid-19 deaths on April 2 alone when its first coronavirus wave peaked - compared with a total of 253 deaths since lockdown measures ended on June 21, for a total of 28,576 fatalities.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
