Catalonia records highest number of new Covid-19 cases since May

Catalonia has recorded 774 new positive cases of Covid-19 on Friday according to the latest figures from the health department. 

It is the biggest one-day surge since May 21, when there were 778, and brings the total number of coronavirus cases to 75,141. 

Thursday saw the biggest one-day surge since May 27, with 482 new cases. A day later, the newly confirmed cases increased by 292. 

Segrià, which has been in lockdown for nearly a week after more than a dozen new outbreaks have been discovered in recent weeks, has seen 280 of the new cases reported, up from 74 on Thursday. 

The total number of new cases discovered in the wider Lleida health region in the last 24 hours is 338. 

The Catalan government has warned of an "unsustainable" increase in coronavirus cases found among young people aged 15-29 in the confined county, but so far rules out home confinement in the region.

In Barcelona, meanwhile, 204 new cases were confirmed on Friday, a day after 212 were discovered in the Catalan capital. 

Deaths 

Funeral homes reported on additional coronavirus death in the last day, bringing the number of confirmed or suspected coronavirus deaths in Catalonia to 12,607. 

In the confined county of Segrià, there have now been a total of 137 deaths. 

Lleida outbreaks

The Segrià county, which includes the regional capital Lleida, has been quarantined from the rest of Catalonia and neighboring Aragon since July 4, with travel in and out only allowed for work or other essential purposes. 

Segrià has seen a total of 2,974 Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

The Catalan police station in Lleida has registered one of the new coronavirus outbreaks and is now the seventeenth in the region. 

There are at least six positives in the police station. Sources from the Catalan police have told the Catalan News Agency that it has been decided to isolate the officers who have had contact with those confirmed Covid-19 positive but that they are not being tested for PCR unless they have symptoms. 

The same sources fear that the positive cases will increase in the coming days when the results of the PCR tests performed on workers with symptoms between this Thursday and Friday are available.