The two largest Spanish cities, Madrid and Barcelona, will not go on Monday to the new stage of deconfinement unlike other regions where the terraces can reopen and people get together with their loved ones. The Ministry of Health announced on Friday evening that half of the approximately 47 million Spaniards could enter the new phase of deconfinement from Monday.
"This is not a race"
Very progressive, the deconfinement plan for Spain, one of the countries most bereaved by the coronavirus pandemic, is to be spread out until the end of June. It has four phases which will be implemented at different rates in each region depending on the evolution of the epidemic. The Madrid region, the most affected in the country with a third of the 26,299 dead total, will therefore not benefit from the first phase Monday, despite the request of the regional government to be able to deconfinate further. "We felt it was not appropriate to move to the next phase (...) This is not a race," said Health Minister Salvador Illa, who will reconsider the situation in a week.
A large part of Catalonia, the second region most affected by the epidemic, including the regional capital Barcelona, will also have to wait but in this case, the regional government had not asked to move forward with deconfinement. Parts of the region of Valencia (east), Andalusia (south) and the central regions of Castile and Leon and Castile-La Mancha will also have to wait.
Seville and Bilbao to go through a new phase
On the other hand, other areas of the country such as the cities of Seville or Bilbao will pass on Monday in the new phase of deconfinement which provides for the authorization of family or friendly meetings for up to ten people and travel within the provinces. In addition, small shops can receive customers but without prior appointment, as was the case since Monday, while the terraces of bars and restaurants can reopen with reduced capacity. Hotels may also reopen, but common areas will remain inaccessible.
Since the establishment of a very strict containment on March 14, Spain has very clearly slowed the expansion of the epidemic, which has already caused 26,299 deaths and nearly 223,000 confirmed cases, according to the latest assessment. The death toll has rebounded slightly in the past 24 hours, to 229 from 214 the previous day. The daily number of deaths in the last few days has hovered around 200, far from the peak of 950 recorded in early April.
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