“I want to announce the realization tomorrow [sábado] of an extraordinary Council of Ministers to declare a state of alert for 15 days, ”said Pedro Sánchez in the speech without the presence of journalists.
This provision provided for in the Spanish Constitution for, among others, cases of “epidemics and situations of serious contamination” will allow the executive to limit the movement of people for a limited time of initially 15 days throughout the country, but not to interfere in fundamental citizens’ rights.
Spain has so far registered 120 deaths with the new coronavirus (36 more than Thursday) and 4,209 confirmed cases (1,205 more), with Madrid being the region most affected, according to the update made today by the country’s health authorities.
Almost half of the total number of positives is located in Madrid (1990), which will close from Saturday all establishments except food stores and pharmacies to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
After Madrid, the community with the most cases is the Basque Country (417), which decreed a state of “health alert or emergency” in that territory, which allows it from tomorrow, if deemed necessary, to adopt exceptional measures, such as the isolation of people in their homes.
Catalonia, with 316 positive cases, is the third community that registered more cases, with the regional government ordering the isolation of the resident population in the areas around Barcelona de Igualada, Vilanova del Camí, Santa Margarida de Montbui and Òdena to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak that affects this area.
In the La Rioja region there are 243 positives and for the rest of the communities, the numbers are as follows Andalusia, with 219; Castile-La Mancha, with 194; Castile and Leon, 169; Navarra, 130; Valencia, 94; Galicia, 85; Aragon, 80; Canaries, 70; Asturias, 67; Extremadura, 39; Murcia, 35; Baleares, 30 and Cantabria, 29.
The Spanish city in North Africa of Melilla has just notified its first two positive cases, while Ceuta still has no confirmed cases.
The Spanish Government announced on Thursday a “first package” of measures to fight the new coronavirus, which includes a transfer of 2,800 million euros to support the country’s health systems, and recommended to all autonomous communities the closure of schools at all levels of education.
Spanish regional authorities have most of the competences in matters of health or education policy.
The Government also approved, among other measures, the creation of a 400 million euro credit line to help companies in the tourism, transport and hospitality sectors to alleviate the effects of the coronavirus crisis.
The Spanish football league will be suspended for the next two rounds, both in the first and second divisions, and Real Madrid football and basketball players are quarantined after a positive coronavirus case has been confirmed.
The new coronavirus responsible for Covid-19 was detected in December 2019 in China and has already caused more than 4,900 deaths worldwide, leading the World Health Organization to declare the disease as a pandemic.
The number of infected people exceeded 128 thousand people, with cases registered in more than 120 countries and territories. Almost 70,000 of those infected have recovered.
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