Barcelona locks down 1.6m people as second wave hits Spain

Spanish authorities have locked down Barcelona and have urged 1.6m residents to stay at home as coronavirus cases surge.

On Friday authorities urged 1.6m residents to stay at home and not to gather in groups of more than 10, but stopped short of imposing a mandatory lockdown.

Alba Verges health chief of Catalonia told reporters, “We recommend that people don’t move around if it’s not absolutely necessary.

“It is very important to respect these measures now, it’s the best way to avoid a lockdown.”

Spain reported 580 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, up from 390 confirmed cases on Wednesday which led to the announcement.

On Wednesday, the Spanish region Catalonia have locked down more than 160,000 residents, as Catalonia had a further 938 people test positive for the virus, which comes weeks after the lockdown was lifted.

Since 4 July Britons are allowed to travel freely to Spain via an air bridge meaning, there are no mandatory quarantine measures in place across England for Brits returning home.

Almost two weeks agao, the Western Catalan city of Lleida and Segrià county, which is around 100 miles west of Barcelona, went into lockdown affecting 200,000 residents.

Since Spain lifted the country wide lockdown on 21 June there has been more than 170 confirmed coronavirus clusters emerge causing localised lockdowns.

The wealthy region of Catalonia is home to around 7.5m residents is seeing a huge spike in cases.