Spain’s government has apologised for causing confusion over new lockdown rules for children, while a scientific study suggested the new coronavirus may have been circulating among the population longer than previously thought.
With Europe’s second highest death toll of 22,157 and the world’s second most cases at 213,024, Spain has some of the toughest restrictions in Europe.
However, a slowdown in the infection rate has prompted an easing of some measures.
The coronavirus causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease.
On Tuesday night, after initially ruling out recreational walks for children, the government bowed to public pressure – including pot-banging protests on balconies – and allowed short, supervised outings for the first time in more than a month.
“I want to apologise because in the government over the past days and hours, we haven’t been clear,” Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias said, confirming that children under 14 would be able to take short walks with adult supervision.
In Madrid, authorities began shutting down hotels that had been hastily converted into medical centres after the disease’s lightning-fast propagation left city hospitals unable to cope.
Spain detected its first case of the virus, a German tourist in the Canary Islands, at the end of January and only acknowledged transmission among Spaniards in early March.
However, a new genealogical study showed it was likely circulating through the native population by mid-February.
The scientists at Madrid’s Instituto de Salud Carlos III also found the virus entered Spain via at least 15 different points.
In northeastern Catalonia, streets including Barcelona’s famous La Rambla boulevard, were virtually deserted on the region’s patron saint’s day when Catalans usually crowd streets with loved ones, exchanging books and roses.
Still, people kept up St George’s Day traditions with roses on balconies and book-sharing online.
Spain started easing restrictions for some businesses last week, but restaurants, hotels and public spaces remain shut.
Hotels saw a 66% plunge in foreign visitors in March, even though an official shutdown only came late in the month.
Tourism accounts for 12% of gross domestic product in the world’s second-most visited nation.
In further evidence of a downturn, automotive industry association Anfac said March car production fell 45% year-on-year as factories stood empty.
Bankinter, Spain’s fourth-largest bank and the first to report quarterly earnings, said it had almost doubled provisions to reflect the worsening economic impact from the outbreak, which made its first quarter net profit shrink by 10%.
But the rental market remained buoyant, according to real-estate agent Fotocasa, which said average rents across the country rose 6.5% in the first three months.
That trend is likely to continue despite the pandemic, it added.
European Union (EU) leaders were discussing ways yesterday to restart their economies, including a Spanish proposal for a €1.5tn euro recovery fund.
“Europe needs more fiscal firepower and we need it now. Every day thousands of companies are filing for bankruptcy. We need this proposal to fly,” said Ana Botin, chairman of Spain’s largest bank Santander, on Twitter.
Deaths from the Covid-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 464 yesterday, against 437 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, but the daily tally of new infections declined to 2,646 from 3,370 on Wednesday.
The total official death toll since the outbreak came to light on February 21 now stands at 25,549, the agency said, the second highest in the world after that of the United States.
The number of confirmed cases was 189,973, the third highest global tally behind those of the United States and Spain.
People registered as currently carrying the illness fell to 106,848 from 107,699 on Wednesday, a fourth consecutive daily decline.
There were 2,267 people in intensive care yesterday against 2,384 on Wednesday, maintaining a long-running decline.
Of those originally infected, 57,576 were declared recovered against 54,543 a day earlier.
For the first time, the civil protection unit published data on how many people had been tested for the virus so far in Italy, putting the number at 1.053mn, out of a population of around 60mn.
The agency had previously only issued data on the number of swabs carried out.
This is a much higher figure – 1.58mn up to yesterday – because many people are tested two or three times.
Healthcare workers offer a book and a rose to a cured coronavirus patient as she is discharged from the field hospital of Hotel Catalonia Fira in Barcelona yesterday, during the Sant Jordi festivities marking Saint George’s Day. Traditionally men give women roses and women give men a book to celebrate the Catalan holiday, also known as ‘The Day of the Rose’ or ‘The Day of the Book’.
