THE Catalan government has ordered a new lockdown for the western Segria region due to new outbreaks of Covid-19.

The confinement began at midday today and will not have an end date, president Quim Torra said.

He told the public: “We take a step back to protect ourselves and we will take all the decisions to stop the contagion.”

About 209,000 people live across the Segria region, whose capital is Lleida.

The news comes as the UK Government plans to let people in England travel to dozens of countries without having to quarantine on return from July 10.

There have been 62,057 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Catalonia since the beginning of the outbreak.

On June 22, there were six Covid-19 patients in regular rooms and four in the intensive care unit in Lleida’s main hospital. As of yesterday that figure had grown to 21 patients in regular rooms and six in the ICYU.

Health officials say they currently aren’t concerned by the number of cases – 276 were confirmed yesterday – but they do want to stop community spread before they lose control of the virus.