Spain’s Latest Coronavirus Outbreaks Affect the Young and Middle-Aged

Officials desperately hope they can avoid another full lockdown that would be catastrophic to businesses and jobs despite the expected injection of massive aid from the European Union.

Catalonia and many other regions have reintroduced restrictions, making masks obligatory at all times outside the home and reclosing nightclubs due to their links to outbreaks.

“We must be obsessive about complying with the protection measures,” said Catalonia's public health director, Josep Argimon.

Catalonia, however, is only now deploying 600 workers to its clinics to help nurses and doctors handle the demands of contact tracing, which has been insufficient so far. That lack of urgency has drawn strong criticism from health workers and mayors.

Spain’s government is rolling out a phone app to help contact tracers find and stamp out new infections, while making a renewed appeal for individuals to act responsibly.

“There are many citizens who feel anguish upon seeing the outbreaks that are happening in different parts of our country,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Friday.

“Because we have all had to make an enormous effort to be disciplined, show resistance, and muster the will to defeat the virus.”

(Writers: Renata Brito, Joseph Wilson)

Source: https://apnews.com/703d9d02ede92e29487a9a7c4c8ab47d