Madrid Is Now Covid-19 Epicentre Of Europe

Madrid is now the epicentre of the second wave of Covid-19 infections, not only for Spain but for the whole of Europe according to figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Spain´s official toll to date is 565,000 cases of which 29,515 have died and the daily infection rate higher than in March when the government introduced the state of emergency lockdown.

The head of the Spanish Covid Task Force (Health Ministry’s Coordination Center for Health Alerts) Fernando Simón said the figures “are higher than we would like,” though maintaining that the increase is more to do with increase in testing than any other factor which is now at around 11% of the population.

The autonomous community of Madrid has the highest number of infections  of all of Spain´s 17 autonomous communities  with some 520 per 100,000 inhabitants  and the numbers are continuing to increase.

Simón indicated that “confinement measures were under consideration although earlier the Spanish health minister said that this was not yet an option.

The continuing surge comes as the region´s 1,200,000 pupils have begun the return to school for the first time since March and according to Simón the number of cases in schools is likely to be consistent with the overall number of ” community transmissions,” but warning that it maybe still be necessary for” direct action” to “stop outbreaks in the classrooms”·