A Spanish judge has barred Catalan authorities from confining about 160,000 people to their homes but the region's leader has urged people to stay home anyway to stem a surge in coronavirus cases.
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Catalan leader Quim Torra said he would approve a new decree to make it compulsory.
Spain, one of Europe's worst-affected coronavirus countries, lifted a nationwide confinement last month, when the pandemic seemed to have come under control.
But with dozens of new clusters nationwide, particularly in the northeastern Catalan region, local authorities are taking new measures to lock down small areas or make it mandatory to wear a mask everywhere in public.
People in the Lleida area have been banned from leaving since July 4, except for specific reasons such as going to or from work.
But the judge ruled the move by regional authorities - who had mounted a sustained campaign for independence from Spain - to impose home confinement went too far and did not go through the right channels.
"What is proposed today goes far beyond a simple limitation of movement and seriously affects constitutionally recognised rights," Judge Elena Garcia-Munoz Alarcos said in the ruling.
Torra, who is president of the Catalan regional government, said he could simply not accept such a ruling.
"We cannot understand that there is bureaucratic obstacles in decisions that are taken for the health and life of citizens," Torra told a media conference. "It's a luxury to lose time with legal resolutions. We cannot allow this."
Asking people to stay home, he said his government would adopt a new decree on Monday to try to solve any legal issues over the confinement order.
According to the decree which the judge struck down, people would only have been able to leave their home for work, to see a doctor, buy groceries or do sports. Gatherings of more than 10 would have been banned.
People will still not be able to leave the Lleida area under the lockdown decided earlier this month, but can move freely within the area, the judge said.
La Rioja, Navarra, Aragon and Andalusia regions are set to make it compulsory from Monday to wear a mask indoors and outdoors, authorities said, following a similar move in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Extremadura.
In the rest of the country, masks are compulsory only if people cannot be at least 1.5m apart.
Australian Associated Press
