Madrid (AFP)

Five additional Spanish regions, including Madrid, said on Wednesday that they would seal off their territory before the All Saints long weekend in an attempt to stop the surge in coronavirus infections.

The Spanish families will traditionally go to their graves on November 1 and lay flowers there.

As this year the public holiday falls on a Sunday, Monday has been declared nonworking in order to have a three-day weekend.

Some six million people travel across the country on Day of the Dead, so Madrid's regional government plans to limit entry and exit from the province from Friday until Monday, November 2, a indicated the president of the region, Isabel Diaz Ayuso.

"We know that we have to reduce social contacts," she said at a joint press conference with the presidents of the neighboring regions of Castile and Leon and Castile-La Mancha who, for their part, declared that 'they were going to close their borders until Monday, November 9, which is a public holiday in Madrid.

For their part, the coastal regions of Murcia (south-east) and Andalusia (south-west), popular destinations for residents of landlocked cities like Madrid during long weekends, have also said that they will close their territories. Friday until Monday 9 November.

These closures mean that no one will be able to enter or leave these regions during this period, except for imperative reasons such as going for treatment or work.

"The pandemic is growing exponentially", according to the president of the region Castile and Leon, Alfonso Fernandez Manueco.

"We must adopt measures, drastic measures while remaining proportionate".

Three of Spain's 17 regions - Navarre, La Rioja and the Basque Country - had already sealed off entry and exit from their territory earlier this month.

Since the end of strict national containment in June, coronavirus cases have skyrocketed in Spain, with thousands of new infections diagnosed every day.

Hospitalizations, although down from the peak period in March-April, also continue to increase.

Spain was the first country in the European Union last week to exceed one million confirmed cases of Covid-19 infections, with a death toll of 35,000.

© 2020 AFP