The situation has begun to recover and preliminary reports have shown that there is a steady decline in the outbreak. Yesterday, May 11, 2020, Spain has started the phase one of the opening up of its economy allowing the opening of small individual businesses. Certain regions and provinces are now in this phase and it covers around 51% of the whole country. For example, Madrid and Barcelona are still on the very restricted phase but might go up to this level in a week or two. Nevertheless, areas approved to be on this phase one can now have groups of up to 10 people as long as the security distance of two meters is respected. In addition, we can now have more than one person inside the car, of which, previously, it was strictly only one person per car. Restaurants can now open with their terraces of up to 50% of its capacity. Small stores of 400 square meters or less can open but can have only up to 30% of clients inside its premises. Most small business and factories etc. can also open by now. Food and authorized street markets and stalls can now open provided the distancing between stalls is observed. Spain has been very strict with the lock down since March 14 and it is only now that we are opening up.

We have 4 phases on the opening up and May 11 is the start of this second phase and every phase has a 2 week period. The authorities will then decide if we can go up to the next phase or NOT (depending on the trajectory of the virus, capacity of hospitals and it will be done per province). We then expect to end the phases on June 25, of which, we will have the “new” norm of social distancing, the washing of hands, and the wearing of masks in public places and in public transportation etc. During this time they will gradually allow travel from within the province only, to eventually all of Spain. European travel is expected only after June 25 or by early July and it looks like it will be also a Europe wide agreement on how to do that and on what conditions. Still, there is no talk of international non-EU travel yet but the earliest that it can happen is probably from August.

In our view, it looks like Spain's national health care was able to handle the COVID 19 crisis and was able to provide the medical attention to all its citizen requiring medical care. The most affected areas are in Madrid and Barcelona, wherein, they had to make temporary hospitals out of their convention centers. They have now closed these temporary medical centers because they are not needed anymore. Nevertheless, Spain had a lot of cases and was struck hard. The majorities of the deaths (60% or more) were residents in senior homes (ages 70 and above) and many of these homes were not prepared for this sudden virus outbreak. Nevertheless, Spain held up and we are now seeing the positive results of its strict lockdown. We have seen how the Spanish national health care system responded well at the height of the crises by providing the best medical care to all of its citizens and residents mostly for free.

Spain is now in the right track heading to recovery. Things are looking brighter every single day since the mandatory quarantine. In the weeks and months to come we expect Spain to bounce back with a better and brighter tomorrow.

If you have any questions or queries on Spain please let us know and we will be happy to respond. The future looks promising and we look forward to helping anyone seeking a new fresh life within Europe.