Madrid (AFP)
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao became the first large museum to reopen on Monday, in Spain, where the deconfinement now allows 70% of the population to enjoy the beaches and restaurants.
Famous for the sinuous curves of its building designed by the architect Frank Gehry, the Guggenheim, located in the Basque Country (north), reopened on Monday with reduced hours, said the museum on its site.
All museums in Spain had closed in mid-March after the establishment of the strictest confinement in one of the countries most mourning the world for the Covid-19 pandemic with more than 27,000 dead.
With the slowdown of the epidemic, Spain began several months ago a deconfinement in phases and different according to the regions, which the head of government Pedro Sanchez hopes to see completed on July 1.
This deconfinement allows the museums to reopen their doors with an influx reduced to 30% or 50% of their usual reception capacity. But in Madrid, the two most visited museums in the country, the Prado and the Reina Sofia, will not reopen until Saturday.
With the entry of new provinces on Monday in the second phase of deconfinement, 70% of Spaniards are now in this phase, which allows the opening of beaches for swimming or dining rooms that could only open their terraces in phase 1 .
Phase 2 also authorizes the opening of cinemas, theaters and shopping centers, always with reduced attendance.
But Madrid and Barcelona, the cities most affected by the epidemic, are still in phase 1, in which they were the last to enter last Monday with a large part of the central region of Castile and León.
This phase 1 allows the opening of terraces, small shops, libraries and hotels but without the common areas.
More advanced, small islands of the Canary and Balearic archipelagos entered Monday in the third and last phase, which allows the opening of counters in bars, casinos or leisure areas such as zoos.
© 2020 AFP