Guernseyman living in Spain talks of new hope
ALTHOUGH still officially under lockdown until 9 May in Spain, Guernseyman Alan Carre has revealed the hope the country feels that measures are slowly being lifted.
The country’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, eased the coronavirus lockdown restrictions on Sunday allowing children under the age of 14 to leave their homes for an hour a day between 9am and 9pm for the first time in six weeks and Mr Carre has said more relaxation of the rules is expected in the coming weeks.
‘As from Sunday 26th after six weeks of total confinement, children under 14 years of age are allowed outside to play and exercise,’ he said.
‘They can take scooters and skateboards outside to play but must not mix with others – it’s actually [been] quite nice to be hearing children’s excited voices again.’
He added there were a number of factors that had led to the measures being eased.
‘This relaxation came about due to the pressure from regional governments pleading with the Prime Minister for this to be allowed,’ he said.
‘It is also due to a consistent drop in the number of deaths throughout Spain in the last week or more with just 288 on 26 April, the lowest number since 20 March.
‘[The Prime Minister] has also hinted that a gradual release from lockdown may even be on a regional basis according to the severity of cases in each of the 17 regions of Spain.’
In Los Alcazares, where Mr Carre and his wife, Brenda Carre relocated to the Costa Calida in October 2019, there have been five reported cases and in total in Murcia, the south-eastern Spanish province it is located in, has the lowest count of cases of all the 17 regional areas of Spain.
Building and factory workers were allowed back to work on 13 April under strict rules of social distancing.
Next up is the preparation for more measures to be loosened.
‘This week Spain issued everyone with free masks and in our area these were handed out on doorsteps by civil protection people [and] the police also stopped traffic and issued masks to everyone,’ added Mr Carre.
‘This is all in preparation for the next easing of restrictions on May 2nd when it is hoped at last that adults will also be allowed outside to walk and exercise as the Prime Minister has hinted.
‘This of course will only happen if the numbers continue to show a decrease [and] there will be the inevitable rules applied such as the compulsory wearing of masks and probably time limits too, however, at this stage after six weeks confinement at home we don’t care about the limits we just want to get out.
‘The Prime Minister says these will be the first tentative steps and we will see what June brings – with the ever increasingly lovely weather everyone will be grateful to get outside again.’
Over 23,800 people in Spain have now died from Covid-19 and it is one of the worst affected countries the virus has hit, with nearly 230,000 confirmed cases.
