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However, the number of registered vehicles was only half that of previous years. Since Friday afternoon, more than 7,000 police officers have been on the arteries, as well as at the airport and train stations to enforce the cordon. Initially no major incidents were known.
Government versus local administration
The Spanish Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, justified the closure saying that the local government “had not done anything.” We must “prevent the high level of contagion in Madrid from spreading to the rest of the country.” The state of emergency, which the regional government rejects, has an initial validity of two weeks.
Madrid and eight other cities near the capital are closed. People there are only allowed to leave their home community for good reason, for example to go to work or to the doctor. 4.5 of the 6.6 million inhabitants of the region are affected.
Passers-by in Madrid reacted with indignation to the swing of the measures. “You don’t know what’s going on anymore. Politicians are driving us all crazy,” said an older woman. However, the city’s hotel industry expected good sales because people cannot leave the city as they normally would.
