While the resumption of the coronavirus epidemic is confirmed in Spain, Germany advised its nationals on Tuesday July 28 not to go on vacation in the most affected Iberian regions.

The German government has therefore called for avoiding "non-essential" and tourist trips to Aragon, Navarre and Catalonia, a coastal region popular with European tourists.

This warning comes after that of France on Friday, which recommended avoiding Catalonia, and especially that of the United Kingdom, which reimposed a two-week quarantine on Sunday for travelers returning from Spain.

Boris Johnson doesn't want to hear anything

A measure with serious consequences for the second largest tourist destination in the world, where the British represent the largest contingent of tourists.

The head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, criticized it on Monday evening, calling it "unsuitable" and stressing that some very touristy Spanish regions like the Balearics and the Canaries are "safer than the United Kingdom".

"We cannot speak (...) of a second generalized wave in our country," Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Tuesday.

For the government spokesperson, Maria Jesus Montero, Spain is "a safe destination which has prepared and strengthened itself to face the virus and new outbreaks".

But British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended his government's decision on Tuesday in the face of "signs of a second wave" of the new coronavirus in Europe.

The bar of 280,000 cases crossed

Spain, which officially counts more than 28,400 deaths caused by the pandemic, has seen the number of cases jump in recent weeks.

According to the latest report released on Tuesday, over the last seven days, more than 1,800 new cases have been detected on average daily, for two thirds in Aragon and Catalonia. A figure which has more than tripled in two weeks to bring the toll of contaminations to 280,610, according to data released Tuesday by the Ministry of Health.

Faced with the risk, the Spanish regions continue to take measures to try to contain the epidemic. That of Madrid thus decided Tuesday, like almost all the other regions, to reinforce the obligatory character of the wearing of the mask in the street and "on the terraces". Meetings should also be limited to ten people.

This region also holds two pavilions at the trade fair, which had served as a field hospital in March-April, in order to send new Covid-19 patients there if necessary.

Concern in Germany and Belgium

While Spain is one of the European countries with the highest number of cases detected in relation to the population, a rebound in contagions is taking place in many other European states.

The Robert Koch Institute for Public Health Surveillance (RKI) thus expressed its "great concern" at the new contaminations in Germany, a country which had managed the crisis relatively well compared to many of its neighbors.

Faced with a "worrying" upsurge in Covid-19, Belgium for its part announced on Monday a new tightening of devices, in particular in the province of Antwerp (north), where a curfew will be put in place.

From Wednesday, the number of people Belgians are allowed to see closely and regularly as part of their "contact bubble" will be lowered from 15 to five per household, for the next four weeks.

And Greece announced Tuesday for its part that it was again making the mask mandatory in almost all closed places, in response to a resurgence of the disease.

With AFP

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