Madrid, Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa expressed confidence that the State of Alarm imposed on the Autonomous Community of Madrid on October 9 would only last 15 days.

Speaking in the Spanish Congress (the lower chamber of the parliament), Illa said on Thursday he was optimistic that the measures in place would be "sufficient" to "stabilize" a situation he described as "worrying, unstable and fragile", reports Xinhua news agency.

"The 15 day duration (of the State of Alarm) which is added to the previous days (in which movement was limited in certain parts of the capital) means a total of 23 days with restrictive measures. We are confident that is enough to stabilize the situation," he added.

The State of Alarm, which restricts mobility into and out of the Spanish capital and a further 12 municipalities in the region, was imposed after they passed several Covid-19 criterias, such as an incidence of 500 coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants combined with over 10 per cent of all PCR tests giving a positive result and over 35 per cent of beds in intensive care wards occupied by infected patients.

The Health Ministry data published on Wednesday showed the incidence of just over 460 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for the city of Madrid.

So far, Spain, one of the worst-hit countries in Europe, has reported a total of 921,374 coronavirus cases, while the death toll stood at 33,553