More than 200 guests at a Spanish wedding are having to be traced and tested after a coronavirus outbreak just one day after the ceremony.
Health officials in Madrid say nine people have so far tested positive but they fear that number will continue to escalate.
The wedding ceremony was held in the district of San Sebastian de los Reyes and was attended by 207 people from various parts of Spain. In addition, 16 staff who helped at the reception are being tested.
Over 200 guests and 16 staff members that were at a wedding in the district of San Sebastian de los Reyes (pictured) are set to be tested for coronavirus
Madrid council has confirmed the outbreak but hasn’t said if all 200-plus guests and workers have had to go into quarantine.
The coronavirus scare began just 24 hours after the wedding when one of the people who attended became ill and tested positive for the virus.
Heath chiefs say they do not yet know how the first person got coronavirus but they are concerned the outbreak will spread.
They have urged all residents to make sure they wear their masks at all times where it is mandatory, observe social distancing and use gel regularly.
Madrid is currently dealing with 30 outbreaks of coronavirus in the region with the wedding outbreak and two other clusters being the latest.
The two others are in social centres with ten positive cases and 37 contacts being tested.
This is not the first wedding in Spain to cause an outbreak. A wedding in Tudela in Navarre went horribly wrong when guests, including the bride and her mother, felt ill and tested positive for coronavirus.
More than 280 contacts also had to be traced and tested.
So far, more than 50 people either at the wedding or contacts have come down with the virus.
Over the the past seven days a total of 19,405 new coronavirus cases were recorded, with an average of 2,772 per day, according to the Spanish government’s figures.
Spain has denied that it is battling a second wave of coronavirus despite a recent spike in new infections (graphic showing new daily infections in Spain)
But Spain insists it is not experiencing a second wave despite the previous week’s lower average of 1,913 new daily cases with a daily figure of around 1,460 in mid-July.
Fernando Simon, head epidemiologist at the health ministry, said on Thursday: ‘I wouldn’t speak of a second wave’ unless transmission rates were out of control.
‘It is not clear that the increase in detected cases isn’t simply due to the increase in testing,’
The country, which is currently the worst-hit nation in Europe at the moment, has registered a total of more than 310,000 cases and 28,500 fatalities from the start of the pandemic.
The country’s worst hit areas are Catalonia, which recorded more than 5,100 new in the past week, and Aragon, which saw 4,100 infections over the same period.
The regional authorities in these areas have ordered new partial lockdown measures.
About 32,000 people have been ordered into lockdown in the central riverside town of Aranda del Duero.
A Spanish National Police agent speaks to a cyclist at a check point after isolation measures were put in place in Aranda del Duero
Spanish National Police agents staff a check point. People are not allowed to enter or leave the town
Known for its vineyards, Aranda del Duero residents are not allowed to enter or leave the town which lies 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Madrid.
Police have set up check points around the town which will remain in lockdown for at least two weeks.
Local authorities have imposed different forms of lockdown, with Barcelona requesting residents not to leave their homes while Aranda del Duero citizens face police checks.
Germany, France, Britain, Switzerland and Austria have all taken steps to limit visitors from Spain.
In Britain, arrivals from islands including Ibiza, Majorca, Tenerife and Gran Canaria have been under orders to self-isolate for 14 days since the end of July, when they joined the Spanish mainland on the UK’s red travel list.