Health emergency chief Fernando Simon said the pace of increase had reduced in recent days as officials believe the latest wave is nearing its peak. He praised new restrictions announced in the hard-hit Mediterranean regions of Catalonia and Valencia.
"We are still in a situation where we have to reduce risks," he told a media briefing, deeming "really dramatic" the situation in Catalonia, which last week had Spain's highest incidence with 725 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Simon said the infection hike in Catalonia could be attributed to the increasing arrival of domestic and foreign tourists amid the spread of the more contagious Delta variant.
The lower vaccination rate among youngsters and the impact of outbreaks related to school graduation trips are also playing a role across Spain, he added.
The Catalan regional government announced on Monday that all activities, including bars, would have to shut at 12:30 a.m., social gatherings would be capped at ten people, while eating or drinking in public areas would be banned.
The measures are pending court approval.
Separately, a court authorised more than 30 towns in the neighbouring Valencia region to impose night curfews to counter a soaring COVID-19 infection rate.
The regional government had asked its regional court to authorise a 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants considered high-risk, including its capital, Valencia, and local tourism hotspot Benicassim.
Social gatherings of more than 10 people will be banned.
Regional authorities responsible for the COVID-19 response need court authorisation or a government decree for strict measures including lockdowns, travel bans and curfews.
Nationwide, cases began to surge back from the middle of June after a long decline, propelled by the Delta variant and more socialising among younger groups.
"In Spain, we are becoming experts in premature easing of restrictions. When we decided to lift restrictions in this fourth wave there was not enough immunity among citizens to remove many of the restrictions," Dr. Rafael Bengoa, co-founder of Bilbao's Institute for Health and Strategy, told Reuters.
He said the authorities had rushed to boost tourism numbers rather than base their decisions on epidemiological data.
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From what I've seen for the past ten days in Torremolinos, it's down to personal responsibility. The staff here have been excellent, but as usual it is the minority of idiots who believe the rules don't apply to them, who are causing risks. The staff who work in hotels, airports etc. do not have the time or ability to babysit every individual person.
Covid is a mutating virus and our immune systems cannot adapt to all variants quickly enough . Vaccines are a part solution but in the eu the average rate of countries vaccinated is around 40-45 percent . Thats too low . That rate needs to be at 70 percent plus . The impatience of government econimies and public is the problem . No doubt people needs to get on with their lives etc but allowing for example all airlines to dump tourists in unlimited numbers on Mallorca is asking for trouble that is already happening as anyone can see on covid figures . The solution is a restricted approach meaning cap supply and demand . Dont allow more than for example 500 flights in a day etc and control the amount of people . Limitations and some restrictions just make sense . Anyone can see what happened in Portugal or Holland as They where too eager to soon and did nt limit . For Armengol in Mallorca to state its all safe when Spain and tge Balearics are on the WHO deep dark red map in regards to Covid is simply playing with fire purely for economic reasons !
How can you blame tourists when you cannot enter without a PCR test?, how do you expect to build up your immune system when you are not around nobody? Young people are not affected by the virus and majority have no symptoms or very slight symptoms. jumping the gun to bring control back. they using this ''vaccine,'' as the only way our immune system can fight this virus.. so rewriting science on our amazing bodies. young people locked up for over 1 year, now having fun socialising like normal young people, they will now have immunity if they have any virus. this is madness
This article is finally a good one. The someone with the qualification on Covid says the real situation ! . Hope Armengol and co are reading this article too, as they will need to take responsibility for putting tourism numbers before the lives of its citizens. Seems she is happy to let the virus get out of control to simply have a few weeks of mass tourism on the islands. The hangover will be in Sept or sooner, when we all need to hop back into heavy restrictions and lock downs. See what's happening in Valencia etc.
It is blatently obvious that restrictive controls must be re-introduced immediatley. Otherwise it means another LOCKDOWN.