Coronavirus Lockdown Spanish Edition - Day 1 - and so it begins

So... it's here. The bloody virus that's had the world on edge since January has finally beaten Spain down, and forced our government to declare a "State of Alert" for the next 2 weeks... for now.

We had the situation under control. Or at least we thought we did (like most countries). 😔 The first case was a German tourist in the Canary Islands (who brought it with him) on January 31st. No cases among the people who were repatriated from Wuhan itself. The third case was another import to the Canaries, an Italian tourist, resulting in the quarantine of 1000 people in a hospital in Tenerife for 12 days from February 24th. The next day the first cases on the Peninsula, one each in Madrid, Barcelona, Castellón (just north of Valencia).  February 26th was the first "local" case in Seville, as in someone who got infected here in Spain. Then we find out that we'd already had a coronavirus death but just didn't know it! Autopsy of someone who did from "unknown" pneumonia on February 13th in Valencia... March 7th we learn that 60 people in the Basque Country caught the virus at a funeral...

Slow trickle of cases. It was just two "hotspots" in Madrid and the Basque Country, a few other isolated cases elsewhere but all linked to someone who had either been to China (and later Italy) or been in contact with someone who had. And then there were cases of unknown origin and we learned that there were asymptomatic people (or with very mild symptoms who probably brushed them off) walking around, sharing the virus... We didn't learn from Italy's mistakes... And then the shit hit the fan. First in Madrid last weekend when they told us Monday that the number of cases in the capital and in the Basque Country had double in 24h, and it was clear that it was no longer enough to isolate just the sick. So the regional government shut down schools, restaurants etc. The city of Valencia finally cancelled one of the biggest fiestas of the year in Spain, the Fallas (massive economic hit to the city's economy). Well technically postponed it to mid-July. We had all been scratching our heads as to why that hadn't happened sooner considering the increasing number of cases in Valencia (linked to Milan) and the daily mass-gatherings for the Mascletàs downtown... Why on earth were the March 9th Women's Day parades/gatherings allowed? Especially the one in Madrid considering the numbers there???

But did people pay attention to the #socialdistancing instructions? Yeah, you guessed right. 😡 Not only did many people in Madrid NOT follow instructions, they hopped in their cars and headed to their holiday homes in the mountains, coastal towns (in Alicante it was obvious when the supermarkets started running out of meat on Wednesday, the supermarket butcher told me they only stocked enough for "regular weekday shopping", this was summer-level or weekend-level shopping he was seeing). A few days later the region of Murcia - the last region in Spain with zero cases - reported their first case, someone recently arrived from Madrid. A few days later Murcia had to lock down a few of its coastal towns due to the number of cases (imported from Madrid). In the rest of the country we were like "will you idiots stay the F*#K home?!".

One by one the various regions started announcing closures of educational institutions of all levels (from day care up to university) to #slowthespread. Sports events went from being played behind closed doors to suspended for 2 weeks. One after another (starting with Alicante!) cities announced the cancelation of the Holy Week processions indicating that no one believed this would be over by Easter. Alicante announced they were closing access to all the beaches to stop people (Madrid!) congregating there. WHO finally declared it a global pandemic. Then yesterday the government finally announced the "State of Alarm". Today they spent 7h behind locked doors and drafted the law making it official. At 9pm the president came out and told us what's what. No schools (etc.). No restaurants/bars/cafés. No cultural activities (museums, movies, concerts etc.). No going to friends'/family's homes. No GOING OUT AT ALL! Except to buy food, go to the pharmacy, get gas, walk the dog (that one has generated so many memes!!!), go to work (if your job doesn't allow for remote working), go to the house of an elderly relative to bring provisions ('cause they definitely shouldn't go anywhere).

Of course the moment the news was out on Friday many places just closed early. People rushed to the supermarket to buy toilet paper (?!?! this shall go down in History as the "great global TP crisis of 2020") and stock up on supplies as if they would never be able to leave their houses again (was a shock to see meat, fruit and veg shelves in the supermarket completely empty!). And today wasn't much better. I headed down to my local supermarket and then a local butcher's to get some fresh meat and fruit and veg for myself and to take to my mom. Not much luck with the meat (got her half a kilo of ground beef), no problem with the green stuff (as opposed to yesterday). And scary to see so many people in the supermarket both yesterday and today with laden carts. Hopefully they'll calm down in a few days when this collective psicosis has passed.

Signs of solidarity are emerging, especially with the healthcare professionals. Throughout day messages were passed from group to group via WhatsApp asking people to come out to their windows at 10pm and clap and cheer for the healthcare professionals. Was quite moving! People have been offering to help take care of kids for others who can't stay home from work, or go do shopping for the elderly so they don't take the risk of leaving their homes...

So here we are. At the end of Covid-19 lockdown day 1. Wasn't too bad, I got to do quite a bit of walking (left the car at home) between the supermarket, the butcher's near my mom's, taking food to her and then walking home. Was a nice sunny day today. Made me wish I could have gone for a walk on the beach... We'll see how this goes. This too shall pass. Inch'allah.

#stayhome #quedateencasa #yomequedoencasa #restecheztoi