What Happens When The State Of Alarm Ends On May 9 In Spain?

What happens When The State Of Alarm Ends On May 9 In Spain?

What happens When The State Of Alarm Ends On May 9 In Spain?

What Happens When The State Of Alarm Ends On May 9 In Spain?

The state of alarm ends on May 9 and after this Spain will return to the legal ‘normal’ situation prior to March 14, 2020. As announced recently by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, the decree that regulates the state of alarm in Spain is not going to be extended. This will bring to an end the curfew and border closures, and the restrictive measures endured by the population since the pandemic began last year.

Concerns still exist of course, given that the pandemic is still very active and the vaccination campaign, weighed down by the AstraZeneca and Janssen cases and the lack of the necessary reserves of the other vaccines, is still far from the total necessary to aspire to a group immunity of 70%.

So many things have happened in the past year that have affected all of us and our lives will never be quite the same again. Rewinding back to last year we ‘mildly accepted’ the lockdown, shrugging it off as a temporary measure- surely this isn’t going to last many people thought. However, it did and carried on for over another year.

During that time thousands of British expats have had their lives turned upside down. Many have not seen their families and friends in the Uk for over a year. Flights have been booked and cancelled, then rebooked and cancelled again. Refunds from the airlines were promised but never materialised in the early days, instead, Ryanair, easyJet, Jet2 and the rest offered credit notes.

Sadly we lost family and friends throughout the pandemic and to make matters worse most of us could not attend their funerals, instead, watching over the internet- it was something but of course not the same as being there. Heartbreaking stories emerged of elderly people alone in care homes, faces press against windows, yearning to see their sons, daughters, and grandchildren, many dying of covid before they got the chance to be reunited with their loved ones.

Hospitals in Spain and England are reporting the same problems, instead of being overwhelmed by covid patients, they are now besieged by a backlog of operations put on hold over the last year. My heart goes out to the families of those cancer patients who sadly lost their lives to the disease during the pandemic, who, through no fault of their own, were left anxiously waiting for appointments and surgery- thousands died in the process.

Expat business owners in Spain have suffered badly too, with landlords still expecting rents to be paid, same as monthly contracts like electricity and water- regardless of the fact that there were no customers. Many sadly lost their lively hoods and sometimes their relationships too.

Employment shot up to unprecedented levels, the ERTE provide by the government went some way to keep families afloat- but only just. Food banks were left empty by rising demand, squatters moved into empty houses, many owned by expats unable to get over here due to the ban on travel.

Entertainers took on other work when they could find it, borrowing money from family and friends here and in the UK to survive. Work has been hard to find with many dropping their rate to a level they would normally never even consider. Things are about to change though and very soon entertainers will once again be proudly ‘treading the boards’ and will these grim times and look forward to a bright future and resumption of their beloved careers.

The government has said that regions WILL NOT be forced to limit mass events when the State of Alarm ends.

Carolina Darias, the Minister of Health, guarantees that a draft Public Health Commission document on the banning of mass gatherings depending on the incidence rate in the province will only be a guide for regional governments so that measures can be standardised throughout the country, but “in no case will we try to force the regions to follow these recommendations.”

“To recommend is not to prohibit. This type of event is the responsibility of the regions,” the minister said. The Public Health Commission proposal, which is still being debated, will establish four levels according to the cumulative incidence rate of the province.

The provinces at “extreme risk” – where there is a cumulative incidence rate of 250 cases or more – will not be allowed to hold “cultural, sporting, religious” events or “festivals or conferences” where “a high number of people” would be gathering inside or outside.

In the “high risk” provinces (with an incidence rate between 150 and 250) the maximum capacity at events will be 50 per cent with 250 people outdoors and 40 per cent with 75 indoors, as long as there is a distance of 1.5 metres if there are no fixed seats. If people cannot keep this distance, “the suspension of all events and mass activities” in provinces with high levels of contagion is recommended.

In areas with “medium risk” (an incidence rate between 50 to 150), the capacity will be 75 per cent outdoors with a maximum of 500 people and 50 per cent indoors with a maximum of 150. In the provinces in the “new normal” bracket (if they have less than 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) there can be activities with a maximum capacity of 75 per cent outside and 60 per cent indoors and with a maximum of 1,000 people outdoors and 300 people indoors.

If it is decided that new restrictions must be adopted after may 9, the reference will be the Public Health Law of 1986, which enables the different public administrations to decree special measures for health reasons of urgency or necessity.

Basically, this means that if a region or area still has high incidence rates then the local government can still apply some restrictions, however, federal law states that border restrictions and curfews have to be lifted. Watch out for statements around May 7 by regional Presidents who will lay out their individual post lockdown plans.

Source: herald

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Written by

Ron Howells

Ron actually started his working career as an Ophthalmic Technician- things changed when, during a band rehearsal, his amplifier blew up and he couldn’t get it fixed so he took a course at Birmingham University and ended up doing a degree course. He built up a chain of electronics stores and sold them as a franchise over 35 years ago. After five years touring the world Ron decided to move to Spain with his wife and son, a place they had visited over the years, and only bought the villa they live in because it has a guitar-shaped swimming pool!. Playing the guitar since the age of 7, he can often be seen, (and heard!) at beach bars and clubs along the length of the coast. He has always been interested in the news and constantly thrives to present his articles in an interesting and engaging way.

Comments


    • Harry Southgate

      02 May 2021 • 11:14

      … I must be one of the lucky ones .. because, in the 27 years I’ve been here, dozens of people I knew have passed on, but none of them died from Covid-19 .. Indeed NOBODY I know who can show they knew anyone who died from Covid-19 .. What’s even more surprising is that even at the peak of the ‘pandemic’ (if you can forgive that gross exaggeration), I never noticed any increase in activity from the two ambulance stations situated within short walking distances from where I live in town .. and to add to my incredible run of good luck, I don’t know anyone in the UK who died from Covid-19 either .. and out of the dozens of friends and acquaintances of mine who have died in the past (people do die), less have died in this ‘pandemic’ than at any other time … Just how ‘lucky’ is that? …

      • Brian Seavers

        02 May 2021 • 13:45

        Spot on!!
        Funny old world, eh?
        Now we are bombarded with “India”, a country where, on everage, 27000 people die every day from all causes, and even considering the false diagnosed 220000 deaths, that equates to 0.016% of India’s population….

      • Steve

        03 May 2021 • 11:41

        Seems we’re in the same boat exactly. Amazing run of good luck for us both. Regrettably friends have died from cancer, and not at advanced years although perceptions of age do change as you get older. One guy was 71 and a couple who dies within a few months of each other were early seventies too.

    • Harry Southgate

      02 May 2021 • 11:14

      … I must be one of the lucky ones .. because, in the 27 years I’ve been here, dozens of people I knew have passed on, but none of them died from Covid-19 .. Indeed NOBODY I know who can show they knew anyone who died from Covid-19 .. What’s even more surprising is that even at the peak of the ‘pandemic’ (if you can forgive that gross exaggeration), I never noticed any increase in activity from the two ambulance stations situated within short walking distances from where I live in town .. and to add to my incredible run of good luck, I don’t know anyone in the UK who died from Covid-19 either .. and out of the dozens of friends and acquaintances of mine who have died in the past (people do die), less have died in this ‘pandemic’ than at any other time … Just how ‘lucky’ is that? …

      • Brian Seavers

        02 May 2021 • 13:45

        Spot on!!
        Funny old world, eh?
        Now we are bombarded with “India”, a country where, on everage, 27000 people die every day from all causes, and even considering the false diagnosed 220000 deaths, that equates to 0.016% of India’s population….

      • Steve

        03 May 2021 • 11:41

        Seems we’re in the same boat exactly. Amazing run of good luck for us both. Regrettably friends have died from cancer, and not at advanced years although perceptions of age do change as you get older. One guy was 71 and a couple who dies within a few months of each other were early seventies too.

    • Bernadette Metcalfe

      02 May 2021 • 19:41

      We were in Spain during lockdown last last year , couldn’t get back to Wales until July. Wales then went into 2more lockdowns and so we couldn’t return to our Spanish home. In January it was broken into, thankfully we have lovely neighbours who’ve had our locks changed. Our car has been in storage in Alicante airport for 10 months and we’ve still no idea when we can return. Luckily we’re in good health and have had our jabs.

    • Bernadette Metcalfe

      02 May 2021 • 19:41

      We were in Spain during lockdown last last year , couldn’t get back to Wales until July. Wales then went into 2more lockdowns and so we couldn’t return to our Spanish home. In January it was broken into, thankfully we have lovely neighbours who’ve had our locks changed. Our car has been in storage in Alicante airport for 10 months and we’ve still no idea when we can return. Luckily we’re in good health and have had our jabs.

    • Nina Davies

      03 May 2021 • 09:26

      I am sad to read the comments above because they reveal a lack of knowledge of the people who have been so terribly affected by COVID. In the UK the 150,000 people who died from COVID are overwhelming from the following, overlapping groups, poor, old, front line workers, from Black and ethnic minority groups. But just because we don’t personally know people affected does not stop us from showing empathy, surely? There are heartbreaking stories if we choose to read them. Sadly so many British people living in Spain receive their news about the UK from the papers owned by the 4 billionaires, who are quite choosy about the news they publish. And Spanish news? El Pais in English provides good coverage fro those whose fluency in Spanish is limited. There was a great deal of coverage of the tragic deaths in care homes for the elderly in Spain. Almost half of all the deaths in Spain took place in these centres. The brother of close friends of mine, a well-known doctor, died after returning from a medical conference in Madrid in early March last year, one of many affected at that meeting. Just because we don’t see things ourselves doesn’t mean they are not happening.

      • Steve

        03 May 2021 • 11:45

        And why did so many people die in care homes – because hospitals were emptied of these older people to create space for the anticipated flood of covid victims which is many hospitals didn’t materialise. They were basically sent to their deaths, but not just by Spain, many other European countries did the same and this accounted for a large percentage of deaths.

      • Claire Forrester

        04 May 2021 • 19:32

        Very well said Nina.

    • Nina Davies

      03 May 2021 • 09:26

      I am sad to read the comments above because they reveal a lack of knowledge of the people who have been so terribly affected by COVID. In the UK the 150,000 people who died from COVID are overwhelming from the following, overlapping groups, poor, old, front line workers, from Black and ethnic minority groups. But just because we don’t personally know people affected does not stop us from showing empathy, surely? There are heartbreaking stories if we choose to read them. Sadly so many British people living in Spain receive their news about the UK from the papers owned by the 4 billionaires, who are quite choosy about the news they publish. And Spanish news? El Pais in English provides good coverage fro those whose fluency in Spanish is limited. There was a great deal of coverage of the tragic deaths in care homes for the elderly in Spain. Almost half of all the deaths in Spain took place in these centres. The brother of close friends of mine, a well-known doctor, died after returning from a medical conference in Madrid in early March last year, one of many affected at that meeting. Just because we don’t see things ourselves doesn’t mean they are not happening.

      • Steve

        03 May 2021 • 11:45

        And why did so many people die in care homes – because hospitals were emptied of these older people to create space for the anticipated flood of covid victims which is many hospitals didn’t materialise. They were basically sent to their deaths, but not just by Spain, many other European countries did the same and this accounted for a large percentage of deaths.

      • Claire Forrester

        04 May 2021 • 19:32

        Very well said Nina.

    Comments are closed.