the obligation to wear masks in public transportation and all other places where a minimum distance of 1.5 metres cannot be maintained; the government also opened all internal borders among autonomous communities as well as the land border with france, and resumed international flights with other european union countries and the united kingdom. resurgence (17 july – october) on 17 july, in response to an increase in the number of cases in the barcelona metropolitan area, the government of catalonia forbade gatherings of more than 10 people in public or private spaces, and advised residents to stay at home unless strictly necessary. the government of aragon issued a similar advisory notice to residents, in response to an increase in the number of cases in zaragoza. the number of cases also increased again in july in other cities such as madrid. various european countries imposed restrictions on travellers from aragon, catalonia, and navarre. on 7 august, spain overtook the united kingdom in the total number of cases reported, which at 309,855 cases was the highest in western europe. a number of restrictions were imposed, including closing nightclubs, banning smoking outdoors if social distancing was not possible, and compulsory wearing of face masks in public. the country recorded a series of high daily counts of infection since relaxing its restrictions in june 2020, with 3,715 cases reported on 19 august, giving it a cumulative figure of over 370,000 cases by that date. the country had the highest rate of infection in europe, with 145 new cases per 100,000 population in the two weeks before 21 august 2020, compared to 51 in france and 21 in the uk. aragon was the worst-hit region. officials have blamed socialising by young people for the increase. the numbers of deaths and hospitalisations in august, however, remained relatively low compared to march and april, for example 122 died from covid-19 on 20 august compared to 950 on 2 april. on 4 september, the country reported a new record of 10,476 new cases in a day. on 7 september 2020, the number of cases reported reached over half a million, the second country in europe to reach this milestone after russia. there were 525,549 infections in total, a third of them in madrid, with 29,516 deaths reported. state of emergency reimposed (1 october – 9 may) first day of vaccination against covid-19 in spain the government ordered a partial lock-down of madrid on 1 october due to the rise in cases. on 21 october, spain passed 1 million covid-19 cases, the first country in western europe to do so. on 25 october, the government reimposed a state of emergency across the country and introduced a national curfew to counter the resurgence in coronavirus. local authorities were also given powers to ban travel across different regions. the curfew was initially set to last 15 days, but pedro sánchez said that he would ask parliament to extend it if necessary. on 23 november, the spanish king felipe vi went into self-isolation after coming into contact with a patient who tested positive for covid-19. on 27 december, the first vaccines started being administered to the spanish population. on 3 may, spain managed to achieve the government's objective to have at least 5 million people fully vaccinated for the first week of may, more than 10% of the total population. on 9 may, the state of emergency came to an end as prime minister sánchez refused to prolong it any more, claiming that now it was the turn to trust "massive vaccination". government response quarantines and lockdowns residents of valencia, maintaining social distancing while queueing (20 march 2020) on 7 march, haro was put on lockdown due to a concentration of cases. on 12 march, the catalan regional government quarantined four catalan municipalities—igualada, vilanova del camí, santa margarida de montbui and òdena—following a cluster of cases being reported at igualada hospital; the measure affected 70,000 people and was scheduled to last 14 days. the next day, the government of spain announced a state of alarm over all of the country would be decreed on the next day, initially for 15 days as specified in the article 116.2 of the spanish constitution. since the real decreto 463/2020 was approved on 14 march, gender inequalities have been increased in the domestic and private sphere due to the measures adopted by the government. under the state of alarm, the central government retains all powers and all police are under the control of the interior ministry. many nonessential activities are forbidden, including large gatherings, restaurants, museums and the like. however, citizens are still permitted to travel to work and buy essential items, and religious services are allowed under certain conditions. in retrospective it was decided by the constitutional court of spain that citizen movement restrictions amounted to the suppression of freedom of movement which was unconstitutional under the state of alarm. the delay in implementing the lockdown meant some people in madrid left for the regions, bringing the virus with them. some autonomous communities announced emergency measures on the same day. the basque country announced a declaration of sanitary emergency in the region, which allows population confinement. the government of murcia announced the confinement of more than 500,000 people in coastal municipalities. president of the balearic islands, francina armengol, asked the prime minister to suspend traffic between the mainland and the islands. president of catalonia, quim torra, asked the prime minister to authorise the closure of all catalonia's ports, airports and railways. mayor of madrid, josé luis martínez almeida, ordered the closure of bars and terraces in the capital, and announced that his government is prepared, if needed, to isolate the city. in extremadura, arroyo de la luz was put on lockdown. prime minister pedro sánchez with health minister salvador illa and spain's health emergency chief fernando simón on 25 march, the parliament—with less than 50 members of 350 present—approved the government's request to extend of the state of alarm until 11 april. on 28 march, the prime minister ordered all non-essential workers to stay home from 30 march to 9 april to bend the curve and contain the epidemic. fernando simón said icus were expected to be full by the end of this week or early the next week. on 1 april, the state of alarm was scheduled to expire on 12 april and the government planned to ease lockdowns going forward, assuming new infections decrease. because the previous week had seen many spaniards die of the disease, on 3 april, sánchez was considering extending the quarantine another fifteen days to 26 april. he consulted the opposition to obtain its support, and will speak to presidents of the autonomous communities on 5 april. on 13 april, some nonessential workers who are unable to conduct remote work were allowed to return to the office, although other social distancing measures remained in place. instead, the government distributed masks on public transport and attempted aggressive contact tracing to reduce the spread of the virus. likewise, many feminist organizations warned about the increase in male violence during the lockdown, when female victims of gender-based violence must live with their aggressor. in fact, according to available data, from 14 to 29 march 2020 calls to 016 (a spanish number to help those women who suffer this kind of violence) increased by 12.43% and online consultations by 269.57% compared to the same period in the previous year. this situation also had an impact on violence against children, since in the week of 23–30 march 2020, the anonymous and confidential chat of the anar foundation received 270 requests for help, 173 of which correspond to cases of serious abuse; that is, 24 cases per day in spain. travel restrictions on 10 march 2020, the government of spain decreed the immediate cancellation of all direct flights from italy to spain until 25 march. on 12 march, all traffic between morocco and spain was suspended. on 16 march, minister of the interior grande-marlaska announces the closing of spanish frontiers to be in effect from 12:00 pm on 16 march, authorising the entry of only spanish citizens and those who can prove cause of force majeure or a situation of need. the entry restrictions will have no effect on the transport of merchandise to guarantee the supply chain. it will not affect foreign diplomatic personnel either. following this, president of the government of the balearic islands, francina armengol, would announce that after receiving the approval of the spanish government, her government will proceed to the closure of all airports and ports in the region, with "a few exceptions".; the canary islands would restrict flights between the peninsula and its islands. air and sea connections to the balearic islands cease due to flight companies stopping all flights. movement between provinces will be forbidden at least until the end of june. closures on 10 march, the ministry of culture ordered the closing of its buildings in madrid, including the museums of el prado, reina sofía, thyssen, the spanish filmoteca española, archaeological and anthropological museums, as well as the national library and the royal palace among others. the constitutional court suspended its activity for two days, and the royal spanish academy suspended its plenary sessions. on 12 march, the spanish cortes generales suspended their activity for 15 days and the ministry of the interior ordered the isolation of its 69 jails. the sagrada família, in barcelona, closes for tourists and construction workers. on 13 march 2020 the government of the community of madrid decreed the shutting down of bars, restaurants and "non-alimentary" shops (only allowing the opening of supermarkets and chemist's shops). on 14 march, asturias, catalonia, cantabria, galicia, madrid, murcia and the basque country closed all shops except those selling food and basic necessities. the mayor of madrid closed parks and public gardens. enforcement spanish army deploys to enforce lockdown in alcañiz, aragón, 27 march. as of 23 march 2020, there were 240,245 police officers and more than 2,500 military deployed across the country. some police made trips to quarantined populations and played music to lift spirits. on 24 march, the government seized control of private nursing homes nationwide, and announced a judicial inquiry after troops found nursing home patients who had died of covid-19 left dead in their beds. in madrid, hospitals refused transfers from nursing homes, and a skating rink was used to store dead bodies as the city morgue overflowed. by 31 march, police had issued 100,000 citations and arrested 1,000 people for violating social distancing regulations. fines can range from €100 to €30,000 for serious violations or up to four months in prison. drones are used for enforcement. police also set up 30,000 roadblocks to stop people from travelling. by 10 april, 3,000 drivers had been sanctioned for violating quarantine while thousands were being stopped each day. penalties were later increased with fines of €1,000 for a first offence up to €60,000 for a repeat offender. the ruling by constitutional court of spain in july 2021 rendered void all penalties for violation of citizen mobility restrictions, however it did not obliged the government to automatically reimburse already collected fines. criticism satirical graffiti in valencia parodying people wearing face masks in a wrong way. according to the guardian, spain's initially slow response to the coronavirus caused the epidemic to become severe even though it did not share a land border with italy or other severely affected countries. an analysis in vox hypothesised that the minority government did not want to risk its hold on power by banning large gatherings early; the prime minister initially defended his decision to allow large gatherings to continue. an opinion piece published by the new york times blamed the high number of victims on the slow governmental response against the virus, focusing on three causes: a stressed health care system impoverished since the 2008 economic crisis, having to unify the 17 autonomous communities' healthcare systems on a central command, and having an elderly population. multiple explanations have been given for the government's slow response to the pandemic, with scholars claiming failure to predict rising global prices of personal protective equipment and testing kits, leading to low supply during the multiple covid-19 waves that hit the country. the government also failed to isolate the elderly in individual facilities