MADRID, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Spain's government defended its
response to the coronavirus pandemic on Monday after official
data showed the country had overtaken Britain to register the
highest total number of cases in Western Europe.
"Appropriate measures are being taken to control the
pandemic in coordination" with the regions, the government said
in a statement, after experts questioned its policies. "The data
shows that we are being very active in tracking and detecting
the virus."
Health ministry data showed 1,486 new cases were diagnosed
in the past day, bringing the cumulative total to 322,980,
compared with 311,641 in Britain.
The disease claimed 65 lives in Spain over the past seven
days. More than 28,000 people have died from the disease in
Spain, while more than 46,000 have died in Britain.
The government also said it had tested nearly 7.5 million
people since the start of the pandemic, with over 400,000 tested
in the past week alone.
In the first half of April, Spain was second only to the
United States in total cases before reining in its soaring
infection rate through a strict nationwide lockdown.
However, the virus has rebounded sharply since the state of
emergency was lifted six weeks ago, with average daily
infections surging from 132 in June to nearly 1,500 in the first
10 days of August.
In a letter published in the journal the Lancet last week, a
group of Spanish health experts called for an independent
evaluation of the government's handling of the crisis and
highlighted a litany of flaws.
One signatory, Ildefonso Hernandez Aguado, a public health
professor at Alicante's Miguel Hernandez University, said a lack
of qualified tracing staff was allowing the disease to spread
unseen.
"Some regions have not understood that this was the key in
the months after the lockdown and in the long term," he said,
stressing that authorities should begin hiring and training new
personnel as soon as possible.
He also pointed the finger at Spain's highly social culture:
"This is a country that doesn't understand holding a
celebration, or taking a holiday if you're not going to share
them".
(Reporting by Nathan Allen; Editing by Hugh Lawson)