Coronavirus: Spain adopts a cautious deconfinement plan, spread over 4 "phases"

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"The plan for the transition to a new normal" is the name that the head of the socialist government Pedro Sanchez has given to his deconfinement program. Unlike other countries, Spain has chosen to structure it by phases, four in total, and not by dates.

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The deconfinement will obey four quite distinct phases, it will last two months - that is to say until the end of June - and it will vary according to the 50 Spanish provinces. This is the essence of the message delivered by the head of government Pedro Sanchez after long hours of negotiations and hesitation, reports our correspondent in Madrid, François Musseau . 

A deconfinement which will, to use the official terms "  gradual, asymmetrical and coordinated  ". Clearly, the central government is trying to spare the goat and the cabbage. In other words, he wants to remain very cautious on the health front and to ensure that the inflexion of the famous curve continues. And on the other hand, it wants to allow the country to breathe economically. 

In particular the tourism and hotel sector, of crucial importance and which accounts for 12% of the GDP. In restaurants for example, we will start with a maximum attendance of 30%. However, no one yet knows when the beaches and hotels will reopen. 

July goal

The strict confinement imposed on the Spanish will ease but very gradually, warned the head of government. "  It is important to take into account something we have learned during these long months of battle against the virus: each of the three de-escalation phases will last a minimum of two weeks . Why ? Because it's the average incubation time of the virus. This means that in the best of cases, the de-escalation or transition to this new normal will last at least six weeks, in each territory. So about a month and a half.  "

Pedro Sanchez said so expect a return to" normal "by the end of June, early July. But distrust is in order. "  If everything goes as it has been until now, and this is why I say it very carefully, the maximum duration that we will try not to exceed will be, we hope, eight weeks for the entire Spanish territory. So at the end of June, we would be a country in full "normalcy", if the evolution of the epidemic is controlled in all the territories.  " 

In this very progressive deconfinement plan, regional governments will have a say. Because Pedro Sanchez knows this better than anyone: the end of the health crisis will not mean the end of the political crisis.

The way out of the economic crisis will be the most complicated and this is where the Spanish government will have the greatest difficulty in handling territorial sensitivities.

Barbara rent

Véronique Gaymard

The country is one of the most affected in the world by the Covid 19 epidemic, with nearly 23,000 deaths.

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