Business as usual? Scant enforcement of Madrid’s new COVID-19 lockdown
MRID: Madrid residents were largely coming and going as normal on Monday (Oct 5) despite a prohibition on non-essential travel in the first European capital to return to a coronavirus lockdown due to resurgent infections, which rose above 800,000 nationally.
Police said 300 officers were manning 60 checkpoints, but commuters poured into the Spanish capital as usual and few said they had noticed extra controls.
With 850 COVID-19 infections per 100,000 people, the Madrid area has Europe's highest rate, so 4.8 million people in the city and nine satellite towns came under new restrictions from Friday night.
"I haven't seen any police controls. I don't quite understand this situation that they have created," said nutrition student Cristina Canete.
Worried about further economic damage,...