Madrid Under Partial Coronavirus Lockdowns as India Reopens Taj Mahal

MADRID, KOMPAS.com – The Spanish capital of Madrid has been slapped with partial coronavirus lockdowns on Monday amid a surge in Covid-19 cases.

While residents of Madrid are dealing with the latest “stay-at-home” orders, the US death toll linked to the novel virus is inching closer to 200,000.

Meanwhile, India is reopening the Taj Mahal and some schools on Monday as the South Asian country presses ahead with measures to kickstart its wounded economy.

Despite having the world’s second-highest caseload, India is not reimposing tighter measures to battle the coronavirus outbreak.

Read also: Coronavirus Cases in Spain Surpass 400,000 as Virus Transmission Increases

The restrictions in Madrid will last for two weeks starting Monday, affecting people living mainly in densely populated, low-income neighborhoods who will be allowed only to travel for essential reasons such as work, medical care or taking children to school.

On Sunday, people took to the streets in some of the affected districts in protest against the new measures.

They sported placards reading "No to a class-based lockdown" or "They're destroying our district and now they're locking us up".

"We think that they are laughing at us a little bit," said nurse Bethania Perez, as hundreds protested against the measure.

"We will still be able to go to work, and go into other areas that are not under lockdown, where we might be able to raise the infections and also still be vulnerable to infections in our own area."

Read also: Jakarta Imposes Work-From-Home Policy on Non-Essential Businesses

Authorities in Spain — among the worst-hit nations in the world — have insisted the step is necessary because virus cases in those districts were much higher than the national average.

Global coronavirus infections are rapidly approaching 31 million, with more than 958,000 deaths.

'We have to get used to it'

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern moved most of New Zealand to its lowest virus alert setting on Monday, saying the country was edging towards eliminating Covid-19.