Spain declared a state of emergency in a move that will allow it to extend a partial lockdown on Madrid, where hospitals are filling again with Covid-19 patients and local authorities have resisted fresh restrictions.
Spain is once again at the center of a surge in coronavirus cases in Europe, with 7,000 new infections a day, compared with a low of 134 cases in June.
The country was one of the worst-hit in the world in the spring, as 27,000 people died of Covid-19 between March and late June.
A nationwide lockdown helped contain the spread then, but infections have surged since the summer, when Spain reopened much of its economy in a bid to salvage its tourism industry.
The current wave has sparked a fierce debate over how to control one of the worst outbreaks in Europe without further damaging an economy that is among the hardest-hit in the West. The Spanish economy—heavily dependent on tourism—is expected to contract between 10.5% and 12.6% for all of 2020, according to the Spanish central bank’s latest forecasts.