Spain takes aim at nightclubs and beaches as virus rebounds

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Nightclubs, bars and beaches — some of Spain's most beloved summer venues — are facing new lockdown restrictions after turning into coronavirus hot spots.

The northeast region of Catalonia now hosts two of the most worrying virus hotspots in Spain, prompting authorities in Barcelona and an interior agricultural area around Lleida to tighten restrictions that were relaxed only a month ago when Spain had its devastating outbreak in check.

Britain has put Spain back on its unsafe list, and announced Saturday that travellers arriving in the U.K. from Spain must now quarantine for 14 days. France is recommending that travelers ditch plans to spend their summer vacations in Barcelona and its nearby beaches, which have seen crowds too massive to allow for social distancing. Police had to step in and take measures to reduce the number of beach-goers.

Catalonia ordered all nightlife venues to close for 15 days and applied a midnight curfew on bars in and around Barcelona and Lleida late Friday, hours after French Prime Minister Jean Castex urged French citizens not to visit Catalonia due to the upticks in new infections.

France is also struggling to stop a spike in new cases but it apparently sees a risk in importing new infections from Spain as well.

“We know these measures are tough,” said Catalonia public health chief Josep Maria Argimon. “But we have to ask for the maximum collaboration of our citizens so they don’t last any longer than they have to. If we see that the growth of contagion is exponential, then the only way to stop it is to limit free movement.”

Local mayors said the shutdown should have been ordered days earlier.

“The measures have arrived late, but they have now been taken and myself and my fellow mayors feel that they are the correct measures to take,”...