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Date Published: 04/06/2020

ARCHIVED - State of emergency extended in Spain until 21st June

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

The sixth extension was approved after extended and fractious arguments in parliament

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - State of emergency extended in Spain until 21st June

Next week the Prime Minister will lay out its intentions for the “new normality” which will follow.

Day 81 of the state of emergency in Spain concluded with the government of Pedro Sánchez succeeding in its bid to extend the state of emergency until 21st June.

The Prime Minister announced that following the extension a new piece of legislation , a “Real Decreto Ley” would be approved by the cabinet next Tuesday laying out the measures considered necessary as Spain moves out of the state of emergency and into the “new normal” which would follow until a vaccine becomes available for the Covid virus.

Although the Prime Minister was unable to give full details, the measures suggested to date include the following:

-Health services need to be prepared for any subsequent “waves” by ensuring that there are sufficient beds, equipment and protective clothing to guarantee absolute care for anyone hospitalized with Covid-19.Information sharing is of paramount importance, and the ability to contain any outbreaks rapidly and efficiently.

- The use of masks in public areas and maintenance of social distancing should remain standard.

- Increased public services must be implemented to avoid overcrowding

- Retail shops should continue to limit capacity to 50% and provide gel and gloves for clients.

- Social distancing should be observed in bars and restaurants, with a maximum capacity of 75%.

- Working from home should be offered to employees wherever possible.

- The possibility of resuming sporting fixtures with public attendance, such as football matches is under consideration, albeit with reduced capacity for spectators.

- Cultural events. It is likely that although cultural events can resume from the beginning of phase 3 that future limitations on the number of spectators will be imposed, the probability being that spectators will be limited to half of the theatre capacity, with one seat between each person.

A point not specifically mentioned here, but discussed elsewehre on Thursday morning relates to the whole topic of tourism and the control of borders. Once the state of emergency concludes, borders and entry to the country must be controlled by other mechanisms, so this is another important point to be covered by the decree next week.

Arguments about reporting of Covid cases

Arguments continue about the reporting of deaths in Spain following the introduction of a new reporting system by the Ministry of Health at the beginning of last week.

Yesterday just one death was officially notified for the whole of Spain, preceded by two days with no deaths recorded at all. Opposition politicians are fiercely critical of the current situation, accusing the Government of “attempting to hide” the true extent of the virus in Spain.

Yesterday the national statistics institute suggested that the reported figures are inaccurate, estimating that 44,000 more people had died in Spain than normally die during the 5 months to date of 2020. The official Covid figures remain below 30,000.

The national figures are rapidly losing credibility, and there is concern that the number of new cases is not being accurately reported, lulling the public into a false sense of security. For example, yesterday 219 new cases were diagnosed in Spain according to the national figures, more than half of them in Madrid alone. Yesterday Madrid announced that it would be requesting the region move into phase 2 next week, but with this level of new infections it is difficult to see how this can justified.

The economic side-effects of the Covid crisis continue to develop. Yesterday it was suggested that the ERTE temporary redundancy scheme could be extended to the end of the year to help sectors such as the hostelry sector, get back on their feet. Today the biggest unemployment payout in the history of Spain will be made to nearly 6 million people who are now unemployed, a combination of the “official unemployed” which is just under 4 million, and those who are temporarily redundant across Spain due to the Covid crisis and are not included in the unemployed statistics. Businesses are technically obliged to re-employ their staff once the state of emergency concludes, but this will simply not be possible for many should restrictions on capacity in shops, bars etc continue past the 21st June, so the proposal is to extend the scheme further to assist businesses in this step and minimise the chance that businesses will simply make their staff redundant or close altogether.

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