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The number of new corona virus infections has reached the highest level in Spain since the end of the lockdown in June. The Madrid Ministry of Health announced this Friday night that there were 4,503 new positive results in tests carried out in the last 24 hours.
However, the total number of detected infections increased by more than 10,000 to almost 500,000 compared to the previous day due to late reports, he said. The previous peak of new daily infections after the end of the lockdown was exactly one week ago at 3,829.
The situation in the Madrid region is of particular concern. The capital again accounted for the largest share of new infections: 1,462, about a third of the total. It is followed by the Basque Country with 678 and the Canary Islands with 363 new cases. In Catalonia, the Spanish “epicenter” of the new outbreaks of just a few weeks ago, the situation has improved remarkably. For the autonomous community of the northeast of the country, only 160 new infections were reported on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Madrid regional government announced new restrictions that will take effect on Monday. The most important measure: Starting next week, meetings of a maximum of ten people will be allowed in both the public and private sectors, as long as they do not belong to the same household. These are the situations that are responsible for most of the new outbreaks, said regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Also, the maximum number of participants allowed at weddings, funerals and other events will be significantly reduced again.
Record number also registered in France: almost 9,000 new infections
The coronavirus is also spreading strongly in France. The Ministry of Health registered 8,975 new infections in one day. This is the highest increase since the beginning of the pandemic. The day before, the authority had reported 7,157 new infections. A total of 309,156 people have been shown to have contracted the coronavirus.
A few days after classes started, 22 schools in France and one department abroad have already closed. Twelve of the affected institutions are in France itself, the other ten on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Friday on Europe 1 radio station.
After summer break, schools resumed classes on Tuesday. There are around 60,000 schools in France. Starting at the age of eleven, students must wear a mask and abide by the distance rules.
Overall, France was hit hard by the pandemic, with more than 30,500 deaths related to Covid-19. The strict curfews in spring severely restricted public and economic life. Recently, the number of new infections increased significantly again.
