COVID-19

An opera performance in Madrid has been cancelled after it had already started, when the reduced crowd protested that they had been seated in close proximity to one another. A Verdi opera was being performed at the Teatro Real in the Spanish capital when the audience seated in the upper tiers complained that they had been seated without social distancing being respected. A spokesperson for the theatre defended the venue's […]

Madrid’s regional government chief has requested the army’s help to fight the coronavirus surge in and around the Spanish capital where local authorities have ordered a partial lockdown of some poorer areas, prompting protests during the weekend. After meeting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in an attempt to reduce contagion in Spain’s worst-hit region, Isabel Diaz Ayuso said Madrid needs help from the army for disinfection and to strengthen local police […]

While a May projection that Madrid sent to Brussels envisioned a 9.2% drop in economic output in 2020, the Bank of Spain has now released a more pessimistic outlook that places the decline somewhere between 10.5% and 12.6%. This is down from the central bank’s own previous forecast, which had expected gross domestic product (GDP) to drop by 9% to 11.6%. Although the end of the lockdown in Spain had […]

Sources close to the Madrid regional premier, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, backtracked yesterday after her deputy health chief, Antonio Zapatero, announced that stricter coronavirus measures would be introduced in parts of the region this weekend in a bid to slow the spread of the Covid 19. But the announcement reportedly caused widespread shock at a Cabinet meeting that Ayuso was presiding over, prompting members of her team to say that a […]

The Ministry of Health said their were 9,437 new cases of coronavirus yesterday, of which 3,022 were diagnosed in the previous 24 hours, compared to 3,023 on Monday. Yesterday's figures do not include data from Catalonia though. Health Minister Salvador Illa said there were 156 more deaths from Covid-19 with 303 in the last week taking the over all death toll in Spain to 30,004. There are 9,752 patients in […]

Some volunteers have quit Johnson & Johnson's Covid 19 vaccine trial in Spain after news of side effects in a participant in AstraZeneca's trial, temporarily put it on hold. The Spanish programme's lead investigator, Alberto Borobia, said there were enough reserve volunteers for the trial to continue as normal, however. Johnson & Johnson began Phase II trials of its Covid 19 vaccine on 190 people here in Spain on Monday […]

Catalonia has reported four cases of Covid-19 reinfection, with one patient having been admitted into the intensive care unit at a hospital in Badalona in Barcelona province. Bonaventura Clotet, the head of Infectious Diseases at the hospital, said a doctor at Palamós hospital in Girona province had also been admitted to ICU, but his prognosis was good and that he was expected to recover. At the end of August, a […]

Britain has been knocked off its traditional top spot as Spain's most important foreign tourism market for the first time in decades. More French holidaymakers picked Spain in July than Brits or Germans in a historic reversal of the sunshine destination's overall tourism figures. The Covid-19 pandemic has been blamed for the dent in the UK's love affair with Spain. Only 378,000 British tourists visited the country in July ahead […]

In an attempt to salvage the winter season, Benidorm is aiming to develop a travel corridor with the UK, via Alicante-Elche Airport, which would involve UK tourists being tested on arrival and departure, rather than having to quarantine. Saying that Benidorm was a safe destination in terms of Covid-19 infections, mayor Toni Pérez pointed out that ‘not a single case has been recorded among international tourists’. He also said that […]