Charlie Smith
SOME 23 people have tested positive for COVID-19 after an outbreak at a wedding in northern Spain.
It is unclear how many of the new cases were guests at the nuptials in the city of Tudela, in Navarra.
The region’s Ministry of Health has carried out 34 PCR tests on attendees and those linked to the event.
One of those who tested positive has been admitted to the Reina Sofia Hospital, taking the regional total of those hospitalised to 17, with one in intensive care.
Some wedding guests are known to have attended a bar in Tudela, and tracing of other revellers is now being carried out.
Another Navarra outbreak of five positive cases was registered in Pamplona, the regional capital.
None of Navarra’s new cases are over 50 years old, the region’s Health Minister, Santos Indurain confirmed on Thursday.
She said three of the new cases in Pamplona were linked to an imported case ‘from another country’.
Speaking at a press conference, she added that new cases were related to a family in two separate houses in the same neighbourhood.
She said: “It is necessary that if they have symptoms they contact a health centre.
“We are seeing that the presence of the virus is real and that in Navarra, like other communities, we are aware that we have outbreaks.
“Citizen collaboration and working together to control [outbreaks] in time is very important.
“We are intensifying the monitoring, making early isolations and we are continually evaluating the situation.”
Navarra’s outbreaks come as other northern Spanish regions, Catalunya and Galicia have been placed back into lockdown.
Other outbreaks have been reported in nearby Aragon, as well as Madrid and Andalucia.
Andalucia, Spain’s southernmost region, today confirmed a new outbreak in Malaga’s Guadalhorce area, which is ‘under investigation’.
There are five confirmed cases in this new outbreak, which is Malaga’s fourth in total.
An outbreak in the Serrania de Ronda is also ‘under investigation’, while two others at Malaga’s Red Cross Centre and in the Axarquia are in the ‘control phase’.
From these four outbreaks some 122 people have tested positive for COVID-19.
The majority of these cases – 109 – are from the city of Malaga’s Red Cross Centre.
Weddings are allowed in Spain, but there are restrictions, including a limit of 75% capacity in indoor venues.
Outdoor weddings may welcome up to 150 guests, while the indoor limit is 75.
