ARCHIVED - State of Emergency extended until 26th April

The number of deaths passed 12,000 on Sunday lunchtime

The government will permit a partial return to work from the 13th April

On Saturday Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that he would be seeking the approval of Congress to extend the State of Emergency until 26th April, but would allow non-essential businesses to return to work from the 13th April.

The exceptional measures put in place paralysing the work activity of non-essential services is due to end on the 9th April, but as the 10th and 11th are national holidays and the following two days Easter weekend, non-essential services will be permitted to return to work on Mondy 13th April.

A full list of permitted activities will be published once the measures have been fully ratified.

The Prime Minister warned that although the State of Emergency is being extended until the 26th April he expected that "normality" would not resume until a vaccine was available, and that " there will be successive State of Emergency declarations" to follow in the future.

However, he explained that future declarations would "not be the same, they will be different, we will begin the process of transition to recovering something of our normal daily lives, not only at a personal level, but also economically and socially". 

The Prime Minister said that his decision had been taken after consulting at length with medical advisors, business leaders and cross-party politicians, after the Saturday case figures were released.

Medical experts concur that the only way to halt the progression of the virus is to maintain a total lockdown, but business leaders warn that a prolongation of the current paralyses of the business sector would deepen the economic recession that will inevitably follow. 

There are many factors to weigh up, as although medical supplies are now arriving, masks and respirators are being manufactured to help the health service cope with the pressure of so many cases, lifting the restrictions too early will undoubtedly result in a second wave of new cases which will be swamp the health service and as a result there will be mistakes, a lack of facilities and services in an already exhausted and weakened sector and more people will die.

On Saturday Spain had 124,736 active cases, 11,744 recorded deaths and 34,219 cured cases. Although the number of new cases was slightly lower than in the preceding days there is widespread recognition that the true number of cases is unknown as so many people are experiencing mild symptoms and are not even being tested, several studies concurring that only around a tenth of the actual cases are even recorded officially.

By 12 midday on Sunday the number of cases had risen to 130,759, with 6,861 in intensive care, 12,418 dead and 38,080 cured.

Here in Murcia we have 1235 cases, 80 in intensive are, 59 dead and 130 cured.

Remember: LOCKDOWN MEANS LOCKDOWN. STAY AT HOME. STAY SAFE AND DO YOUR BIT TO REDUCE THE SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS.