Spain’s Socialist-led government will ask parliament on Wednesday to extend the state of emergency another two weeks through May 24.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that extending the state of emergency is the only instrument that allows the government to limit mobility, in order to prevent contagion, save lives and protect citizens. But the conservative Popular Party, the main opposition, is reluctant.
According to the Health Minister Salvador Illa, the state of emergency, which has allowed the government to impose a lockdown, has been essential in reducing the daily infection rate from 35 per cent to 0.4 per cent.
The Prime Minister pointed to the falling number of new deaths and new cases in Spain, where 276 new deaths and 1,147 new cases were confirmed by the Health Ministry on Saturday, to insist that “we knew that confinement was the way to stop the propagation of the virus”.
Earlier, the government has nonetheless indicated that some economic sectors might not rebound before the end of the year, with tourism the main question mark at the moment.
In April, almost 900,000 Spanish workers have lost their jobs since the country went into lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic, social security data published.
A State of Alarm is the first of three emergency levels a Spanish government can apply under exceptional circumstances.
Since the epidemic began, Spain has now counted more than 250,000 infections, including those people shown to have had the virus through antibody tests.
Tuesday’s daily toll showed another 185 deaths over the past 24 hours in what was the third straight day the figure has been under 200 and a far cry from the 950 deaths registered on April 2 when the epidemic peaked.
Spain has been one of the world’s worst-hit countries, losing 25,613 lives to COVID-19.