Nearly a million inhabitants of the Madrid region now asked "to stay at home most of the time".
Announced on Friday, these strict restrictions on freedom of movement in 37 neighborhoods of Madrid and its inner suburbs, are intended to curb the second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic and come into force this Monday for two weeks.
Since that day, some 850,000 inhabitants, or 13% of the regional population, can no longer leave their neighborhood for reasons of first necessity such as going to work, going to the doctor or bringing their children to school.
However, this is not a return to the severe measures imposed in the spring, the authorities said.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez assured Saturday evening "not to consider confinement of the country".
Containment by neighborhood
The inhabitants of the zones concerned will, on the other hand, be able to move freely within these districts.
Likewise, entry into these areas, except for these reasons of first necessity, will be prohibited.
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“Who is not worried?
": Madrid, between new restrictions and the specter of the second wave
Regional authorities recommend residents "to stay at home most of the time", while ensuring that it is not a strict confinement at home as in the spring.
In these neighborhoods or suburban communities, located in particular in the disadvantaged south of the capital, parks will be closed, while shops, as well as bars and restaurants, will have to limit their capacity to 50%.
"We are made fun of"
In addition, the number of people who can meet will be reduced from 10 to 6 throughout the region.
The inhabitants will have to present a written document to justify their displacement and “random checks” will be carried out by the municipal police, with the occasional support of the national police and the Guardia Civil, announced Sunday the regional authorities during a conference Press.
Several hundred people demonstrated against these new measures at midday in the neighborhoods concerned and in front of the regional parliament, at the call of far-left organizations in particular.
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"We have the impression that we are being made fun of: we can continue to go and work in other areas that are not confined at the risk of increasing transmission, and we can also infect ourselves inside our own. zone ”, denounced a demonstrator Bethania Perez, nurse of 31 years.
The second Spanish wave
Subjected in the spring to one of the strictest confinements in the world, Spain has seen the epidemic start again at a galloping speed since July, until it became the country with the number of cases reported to its population the highest in the EU.
A perfect illustration of the cry of alarm launched Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO) about an "alarming" level of transmission in Europe.
Representing a third of the country's new cases and deaths, Madrid is the region generating the most concern due to the ability of its people to spread the virus throughout Spain from a metropolis populated by 6.6 million people. 'inhabitants, which is also a transport hub.