Madrid schools closure 'was like the apocalypse'
A FORMER Guernsey resident who is now a teacher in Spain described the coronavirus situation in Madrid as ‘apocalyptic’.
Spain’s national government decided to shut all schools in the country’s capital as of today as part of efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus after the number of confirmed cases jumped from 589 on Sunday to 1,204 on Monday.
Aimee Le Cocq was born and raised in Guernsey, working at the Guernsey Press for six years before moving to London to pursue a teaching career which she has now transferred to a British school in Madrid.
‘Up until [Monday], when the government made the announcement that schools were to close, the situation had been very calm,’ she said.
‘I only saw a handful of people wearing masks but when they made the announcement at 8pm [on Monday] that they were closing the schools it was like the apocalypse.’
She said queues at supermarkets were over an hour long and items were flying off the shelves.
‘Madrid had been having more and more cases daily but I think people just went into panic mode.’
One of the shortages she has noticed since the announcement was meat.
‘Friends out here have told me there’s no meat left in the supermarkets – it was hand sanitiser that was selling out a few weeks ago, but now everyone seems to be stockpiling meat.’
The 37-year-old primary school teacher said there had been a bit of confusion among teachers about what was required of them.
Some of her teaching friends had been told to stay away from schools as well while others were instructed to still turn up. Schools for pupils as young as babies up to university students are to close for 15 days, but Miss Le Cocq will still go into school each morning to teach her students via Google Classroom and other web-based technologies.
‘As a teacher it’s quite worrying that we have to come into school, I use the Metro to commute so am putting myself at risk of catching it on that.’
Many companies in Madrid have encouraged staff to work from home where possible.
‘If I catch Covid-19 in these two weeks still using the Metro, I run the risk of passing it on to students on their return, which defeats the whole purpose of closing the schools.’
Miss Le Cocq said it will be very strange teaching in an empty classroom.
Update: As of today [Wed 11 March], the school has decided it is safer for staff to work from home during the 15 day period.
