Spain is introducing a state of emergency and Italy is tightening its lockdown, while Denmark and Poland have become the latest countries to shut their borders to most travellers in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Coronavirus cases in Spain have risen by 1,500 to more than 5,700, public health officials say.
With 191 deaths and 6,046 infections, Spain is the worst-hit country in Europe after Italy, which declared a nationwide lockdown on Monday.
Italy has seen 1,266 deaths and 17,660 infections.
Jet2 flights to Spain have been forced to turn back in mid-air over fears of the coronavirus.
Five flights from the UK have been suspended over France and turned around to return to their origins.
China — where the virus first emerged late last year — is seeing new cases continue to dwindle, but Covid-19 has in recent weeks spread exponentially in Europe, the Middle East and North America.
More than 145,000 infections and over 5,400 deaths had been confirmed worldwide.
READ MORE: US to add UK to European coronavirus travel ban list
Europe has become the epicentre of the pandemic, with countries imposing a cascade of restrictions in efforts to prevent their health systems collapsing under a load of cases.
READ MORE: Coronavirus in Scotland: More cases expected as country battles pandemic
Schools, bars and shops not selling essential goods are among the facilities being closed in many places.
Spain’s cabinet met on Saturday to declare a two-week state of emergency and announce more measures to control the outbreak which has spiked sharply in recent days to more than 5,700 infections, with almost 3,000 in the capital Madrid. Spain had recorded 120 Covid-19 deaths.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here