A woman carries an inflatable float with the shape of a portion of pizza in a Barcelona,where aothorities ordered four million residents to stay at home as virus cases rise. "It's a disaster," wails Maria Quintana, looking at her empty bar terrace by the Sagrada Familia in Spain's second city where the number of new cases has tripled to 800 in a week. In an announcement on Friday, the Catalan regional government urged nearly four million residents of metropolitan Barcelona to stay home unless absolutely necessary, banning gatherings of over 10 people and shutting cinemas, theatres and nightclubs. And then they come and see that the Sagrada Familia is shut and that the bus isn't working," says Joan Lopez, 39, who runs a kiosk opposite the imposing basilica. The surge in new cases has led to fierce criticism of Catalonia's pro-independence regional government for not being better prepared.

Source: Standard Digital July 19, 2020 03:11 UTC