Madrid Pledges 1 Million Tests to Avoid ‘Disastrous’ Lockdown
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An office worker walks across a plaza in Madrid on Sept. 9.
Photographer: Paul Hanna/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The regional government of Madrid is aiming to test 1 million people -- about 13% of the population -- for Covid-19 over the next week in a desperate battle to avert another lockdown.
Regional President Isabel Diaz Ayuso announced the testing blitz on Friday as she imposed a ban on all non-essential movement in 37 hotspots in and around the Spanish capital where the infection rate has spiked above 1,000 per 100,000 people. That means more than 1% of the local community has been infected in the past two weeks.