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By Binnie Island
MADRID (Reuters) – Coronavirus outbreaks are happening across Europe and each country will have to make its own decisions on how to prevent them, Spain’s foreign minister said Friday when Germany declared its country’s maximum is a region at risk.
Germany’s resolution follows a resolution across Britain to quarantine others returning from Spain, an additional blow to hopes for an immediate recovery in tourism, which accounts for about 12% of the Spanish economy.
“New epidemics are the norm, they are no exception, in Spain or in any country of the European Union,” Arancha González Laya told Reuters in an interview.
“Each country is taking steps to fight COVIDArray … they feel obligatory to their citizens. We don’t wonder what measures other countries are taking.”
Some portions of Spain itself have been limited with neighbouring regions to isolating outbreaks from the disease, “demonstrating that it is not international relations or politics, it is a matter of epidemiology,” he said.
Spain recorded almost 3,000 new cases on Friday, about double the average for the first 12 days of August, bringing the cumulative total to 342,813, that of Western Europe.
Earlier on Friday, Spain announced a series of measures restricting nightlife, adding the closure of nightclubs, cocktail bars and ballrooms.
When asked whether the limits of night recreation would have an effect on tourism and the economy, González Laya said:
“The main question is how to make sure we restrict COVID infection and expansion in the country.”
(Information through Binnie Island; additional information through Jessica Jones; edited through Andrei Khalip and Jonathan Oatis)