The Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, on Monday ruled out the country being put into complete lockdown again because "nothing suggests that we will go back to the same situation we had in March".

Despite a sharp increase in coronavirus cases, Illa believes that the situation can be controlled and stressed that at present "the health system isn't under threat".

In an interview published in La Vanguardia, Illa attributes this increase in Covid-19 infections to increased mobility since the end of the state of alarm and the early detection system put in place which is "much better than a few weeks ago".

"The situation is nothing like what we had back in March," he said, explaining that "more than half of the cases detected are asymptomatic, the average age is much lower [about 40], cases are milder, hospital pressure is about five per cent and, fortunately, the number of deaths is very different from March and April".

After admitting that he will still be "worried" until he finds a way "to overcome this pandemic", Illa says that "a change of attitude from everyone" is needed and that we musn't lower our guard: "We won't be able to live as we did before in a matter of months - even in the best-case scenario".