Spain will remain confined until May 9

USPA NEWS - Spain will remain confined until midnight on May 9, as announced this Saturday by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, who also announced that the confinement measures will be relaxed during the new period and children will be able to go out on the street from 27 of April.

The Spanish Government will request a third extension of the state of alarm, until May 9 inclusive. The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, appeared publicly this Saturday to announce the new extension of the confinement and to report that, from April 27, children will be able to go out into the street with restrictions that will be announced next week. The Prime Minister will request the Congress of Deputies on Wednesday to approve the new extension, which is used because, although "social discipline" has managed to "save tens of thousands of lives," according to Pedro Sánchez, the measures adopted so far for the containment of the pandemic they are “insufficient and weak.“

Sánchez praised the social discipline of the Spanish, who are "those who have most rigorously followed the confinement restrictions," said the Spanish Prime Minister. However, he pointed out that the Coronavirus is not yet controlled in Spain and it is necessary to maintain movement restrictions and the confinement of the population. Despite this, he announced that in May the return to normality will begin, although it will be progressive. "Over the next few weeks we are going to experience various states of alarm," announced the president, referring to the progressive normalization of economic and social activities that the Government expects next month.

The Spanish Government wants to stagger the return to normality. As announced by the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, before the summer all productive activities will be allowed to return to work. However, the return to activity of hotels, bars and restaurants, leisure establishments and shops will be delayed until the second half of the year and some of them will not be able to recover the activity until Christmas.

This is the case of hotels, bars, restaurants and tourism. Spain's main economic activity - accounting for 12% of GDP - is lost this season. Between March and September of last year, Spain received 58.5 million foreign tourists who spent 64.5 billion Euros. This year, the employers of the sector considers that more than 11.9 billion Euros could be lost due to the closure of establishments and the paralysis of air transport. The prospects are not good: in the air there are festivals of international interest such as the Sanfermines in Pamplona, the postponed Fallas in Valencia, the patron saint festivities of thousands of Spanish towns, which are celebrated in August, and even Christmas.

The employers of tourism asked the Government to draw up a plan to help companies in the sector, to avoid the disappearance of the most vulnerable. No one doubts that the Coronavirus will cause a recession that, according to experts, will be greater than that caused by the 2008 crisis. The IMF warned that unemployment in Spain may exceed 20% and that GDP will fall to 8% as a consequence of the pandemic. The concern of the Spanish Government is that the economy is not completely paralyzed.