Coronavirus: Why Spain is seeing second waveBy James Badcock

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Spain saw one of the most draconian Covid-19 lockdowns in Europe, but two months after it was lifted, the virus is spreading faster than in any neighbouring nation.

It now has Europe's fastest-rising caseload, with 142 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the past two weeks.

By the time the state of emergency ended on 21 June, Spain was registering 100 to 150 cases per day. That number has risen to more than 3,000.

But the number of deaths over the past week stood at 122 on Thursday, a far cry from the 950 registered on 2 April alone, the blackest day in Europe's deadliest per capita coronavirus epidemic.

Is it just the young?

Most of the transmission is now between young people, and around three-quarters of positives are in patients who show no symptoms.

Bruno Boelpaep/BBC

I work in a night bar near the beach and there are a lot of young people drinking and smoking together. The problem is young people don’t understand how this virus increases

Albert Tomàs
Barman in Barcelona

Spain's government admits the numbers are "not what we want to see", but points to key differences compared to the spring.

Only around 3% of current cases require hospital treatment, less than 0.5% need intensive care and the current death rate is as low as 0.3%.

"Mortality is very low, as is the hospitalisation rate. Something has changed big time, although the rise is still worrying," says Ildefonso Hernández, a professor in public health from Miguel Hernández University in Alicante.

"As long as cases are rising, we have to think that a second wave is on the way. We don't have much time to react before September's return to routines."

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Media captionMagaluf's famous party streets are now like a ghost town

Spain's tourism season has ended up as little more than a damp squib, as most countries moved to blacklist this key destination within weeks of the country opening up at the end of June.

That means beach areas have so far avoided the highest rates of infection, although Catalonia's infection rate is slightly above the national average on 145 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Why one region has been hit hard

Healthcare is a competence of Spain's 17 regions, and some are looking much better prepared than others. At the good end of the scale, the northern region of Asturias has an infection rate of 32, while Aragón in the north-east is topping 500.

Aragón's capital, Zaragoza, has become a hotspot for community transmission over recent weeks, but the problems began in the early summer when thousands of seasonal workers, many of them wandering migrants, began to travel to orchards in the region.

Growers and packing companies have been criticised for not providing accommodation for migr

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