Lleida mayor says 'key' week ahead as growth in new coronavirus cases slows

The mayor of Lleida, Miquel Pueyo, has said that this week is "key" to controlling the coronavirus outbreak, as the growth in new coronavirus cases seems to be slowing.

New diagnoses in the hard-hit city in western Catalonia have risen by 20.4% compared to last Tuesday, the lowest increase in a week, and half compared to the previous Tuesday, when there was a rise of 41%.

Deputy mayor Toni Postius urged caution despite the data beginning to indicate there may be "light at the end of the tunnel."

Catalonia's new Public Health secretary, Josep Maria Argimon, has said that the latest Covid-19 data in Segrià county, which includes the regional capital of Lleida, showed that things are moving in the right direction.

"It would seem that we are heading towards stabilizing the outbreak, from an epidemiological point of view," he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

"If things stabilize in Lleida, that means that the measures have borne fruit." he added.

Lleida lockdown

Restrictions on movement in and out of Segrià county were announced on July 4. They were lifted for most of the area on Sunday but remain in place in Lleida and six other municipalities.

The other measures currently in place in Segrià are the same as in the neighboring county of Noguera and the Barcelona metropolitan area. Generally speaking, the public in these areas are advised to stay at home.

Barcelona and metropolitan area

According to the latest data from the Catalan health department, the last 24 hours have seen 92 new confirmed cases in the Lleida health region, 82 in Barcelona, 38 in the northern metropolitan area and 26 in the southern metropolitan area.

Across Catalonia, 287 new Covid-19 cases have been confirmed by PCR or epidemiologically in the last day.

This brings the overall positive figure to 73,338, which rises to 84,221 if serological tests are also taken into account, up 590 from yesterday.