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PHOTO: The residents of a district in the south of Madrid protest against the latest measures launched by the authorities
Roughly 850,000 people in Madrid will have to stay home in the next two weeks as Spain struggles with a massive increase in COVID-19 cases, Euronews reports.
The restrictions on freedom of movement will come into force in some areas of the Spanish capital as of Monday, September 21, and those affected will be able to leave their homes only for what is strictly necessary, such as going to work or the doctor and taking the children to school.
People in the authorities’ target areas represent 13% of Madrid’s population and 24% of the cases identified last week, the local government says. The restrictions apply to areas with more than 1,000 infections per 100,000 residents and will last for at least two weeks.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the measures would not turn into a quarantine similar to that of the start of the pandemic.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in some of Madrid’s poorest neighborhoods to express their disagreement with the new measures. In Vallecas, a district south of the capital, protesters chanted “Vallecas is not a ghetto” and displayed banners lamenting the “class segregation” imposed by the authorities, Euronews writes.
Dr. Hans Kluge, director of the European branch of the World Health Organization, expects the number of deaths from coronavirus to rise at an alarming rate in October and November.
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