Spain breaks 1M coronavirus cases, a first in Western Europe

After reporting nearly 17,000 cases in the past 24 hours, Spain has become the first country in Western Europe to surpass more than 1 million positive COVID-19 cases after reporting nearly 17,000 cases in the past 24 hours.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, Spain has confirmed 1,005,295 cases as of Wednesday afternoon. Spain currently has the sixth-highest number of cases of any country in the world, coming behind the United States, India, Brazil, Russia, and Argentina. The U.S. has more than 8.3 million confirmed cases.

“I want to be very clear,” Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa said. “Some very hard weeks are coming.”

Spain’s caseload has been gradually increasing since July and broke its record for the greatest single-day count in August. On Oct. 1, the Spanish government issued a partial lockdown in Madrid and the surrounding area in an effort to curb the spread, a decision that was met with significant backlash and protests, according to the BBC. Those lockdowns prevented transportation beyond their area for anything other than essential trips and limited social gatherings to no more than six people.

Spain’s test positivity rate was 10.3% as of Friday. The World Health Organization recommends that a country should remain below 5% before starting to lift shutdown restrictions. Spain has not been below 5% since July. As of Saturday, the U.S. as a whole was at 6.1%, and only 16 states have an average positivity below 5%, according to Johns Hopkins University.

As a whole, Europe has seen a clear second wave of the coronavirus heading into the typical flu season. Last week, the European Union surpassed the U.S. in new COVID-19 cases for the first time since April.

Regional governments in Spain have responded by introducing local lockdowns, according to the Associated Press. Aragon announced that it was closing three cities, and Navarra is poised to be the first region of Spain to close its borders completely. La Rioja will follow suit on Friday.

France is poised to break 1 million cases in a matter of days. As of Wednesday, it had reported 999,744 cases. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron reintroduced a state of health emergency for the country.

Despite having the highest total number of cases in the EU, Spain and France have a lower number of cases per capita than other countries in the economic bloc that have seen dramatic increases in COVID-19 cases. Spain’s 347 and France’s 441 cases per 100,000 people are dwarfed by the Czech Republic’s 975 and Belgium’s 867 cases per 100,000 people.

Though areas in the U.S. such as New York City have begun to see caseloads creep back up, the U.S. has yet to see signs of a true second wave. After the Northeast was hammered by the coronavirus in the spring, clusters and outbreaks rippled across the country, affecting Sunbelt and Midwestern states in the summer and now spiking in the Upper Midwest in states such as Wisconsin, where for the first time, more than 1,000 were hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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