Anti-vaccine, COVID-19 deniers march in Barcelona

Dozens of anti-vaccine protesters on Wednesday gathered in downtown Barcelona, rallying against the Spanish government's decision to impose a face mask mandate outdoors as COVID-19 cases soar in Spain.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is convening a special cabinet meeting Thursday to pass a law by decree that will make it mandatory to wear masks outdoors, amid a record surge in cases.

He also announced a raft of other measures, including an offer to deploy the armed forces to help the regions step up their vaccination rollout and put military hospital beds at their disposal if they are needed.

Sánchez said he is targeting 80% of the 60-69 age group to have received booster shots by the end of next week, among other goals.

Spain on Tuesday officially recorded almost 50,000 new cases of coronavirus.

That's higher than last January, when a surge placed the national health system under severe strain.

Spain is reporting almost 700 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days, more than double the accumulated cases before last year's Christmas holidays.

The omicron variant of the virus has soared from 5% of new cases in Spain to 47% within one week.