A man has been arrested after allegedly infecting 22 people with COVID-19 – including three babies – having walked around his workplace and gym coughing and saying: “I am going to infect you all with the coronavirus.”

According to Spanish police, the man, 40, had a fever of more than 40C and was waiting for the result of a PCR COVID test when the incidents occurred.

He was apparently seen in his workplace with his mask pulled down, coughing and stating he would infect people.

Officers from Spain’s national police arrested the man in Manacor, Mallorca, having started an investigation into the events at the end of January.

It was at this point that detectives had heard about an outbreak of COVID that had been caused by someone who had hidden their illness.

In a statement, the police said in the days leading up to the outbreak, a man who worked for a “well-known” establishment in the town of Manacor had presented with symptoms and his colleagues became worried.

The person in question supposedly refused to go home, but went to get a COVID test after he had finished work.

However, he returned to work and his gym the next day.

His colleagues and the owner of the gym told the person to go home as he could be infectious, with officers stating at this point he had a temperature of more then 40C.

It was during this time – while he was waiting for his results – that the man allegedly went around coughing with his mask down and declaring that he would infect people.

His test later returned a positive result, and the man’s colleagues were subsequently tested.

It was found that five of them also tested positive for the coronavirus, in turn infecting several family members – including three babies.

Three people from the man’s gym were infected, and they too passed the virus on to relatives – in total seeing 22 people catching COVID due to the man’s actions, police said.

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