MADRID, July 20 (Xinhua) -- An end of school year party held recently in the city of Cordoba in southern Spain has led to over 80 people being infected with the coronavirus, local health authorities confirmed on Monday.
The party was held on the night of July 10, and the first participant tested positive a week later. By Monday, the number of infections traced back to this party and confirmed by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests has exceeded 80.
The health authorities in Cordoba have located 670 close contacts of the infected and identified a further thousand people who spent at least some time at the party. All of them have been informed of the need to "carry out preventive measures and to self-isolate for the appropriate time, independent of whether they have tested positive or not," according to the Territorial Delegate for Health and Families in Cordoba, Maria Jesus Botella.
Botella told the Spanish TV network RTVE that the Andalusian public health authority had carried out 1,700 PCR tests to date and that it had been able to "localize all of the people who were in the nightclub on July 10 with the aim of controlling the outbreak."
Nightclubs and bars are understood to be responsible for the high number of new COVID-19 cases and for the localized outbreaks that have been detected in Spain in recent weeks.
According to the Spanish Ministry of Health, there are currently 158 active outbreaks in Spain and 5,595 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the week between July 10 and July 17.
Responding to the sharp increase in the number of new cases, certain heavily affected localities, such as the holiday resort of Gandia in eastern Spain, have decided to close late-night bars and discos. The regional government of the Autonomous Community of Murcia on Monday confirmed that it will also close down late-night bars in an attempt to prevent new outbreaks. Enditem
