Spanish court suspends local lockdown order

Lerida: Catalan government officials mulled action Monday after a local court blocked a lockdown order confining 160,000 people to homes in a virus-hit area of northeastern Spain. Faced with a rapidly rising number of infections in Segria, around 150 kilometres (90 miles) west of Barcelona, the Catalan government on Sunday issued a stay-at-home order in and around the city of Lerida. It was the first such order since Spain´s state of emergency ended on June 21. The area, home to more than 200,000 people, had already been subjected to restrictions on July 4 after cases started to rise, but it didn´t help and on Sunday, Catalan officials ordered the confinement of 160,000 residents.