COVID-19 pandemic in Spain

[32] On 12 January, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, who had initially come to the attention of the WHO on 31 December 2019.

[3][35][36][non-primary source needed] On 9 February, the second case involved a male British tourist in Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands, who contracted the disease after coming into contact with someone in France who subsequently tested positive.

[45][46] In the Valencian Community, a man from Villarreal, who recently travelled to Milan, tested positive and was admitted to Hospital Universitario De La Plana, Castellón.

[79] Parliamentary opposition speculates that the will to allow for the International Women's Day celebration was one of the primary reasons for the Government to downplay the danger, and delay pandemic response until later.

[99][100] This suppression of the freedom of movement was later (in July 2021) declared unconstitutional under the State of Alarm by the Constitutional Court of Spain in response to the appeal by Vox (submitted in April 2020).

[112][113] On 22 March, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez announces that he will take the petition to extend the State of Alarm in the nation until 11 April to the Congress after consultations with regional presidents.

[116] On 23 March, the Spanish Army found elderly people abandoned and dead inside retirement homes, according to Defence Minister Margarita Robles.

[118] By this date, 5,400 medical professionals are confirmed to have tested positive for coronavirus and sent home, further straining the hospitals, where a lack of protective equipment has put workers at risk.

[123] On 30 March, Fernando Simón, the head of Spain's Centre for Health Emergencies and the public face of the government's response because of his daily briefings, tested positive for the virus and temporarily resigned.

The percentage was higher than 11% in the provinces of Soria (14.2), Cuenca (13.5), Segovia (12.6), Albacete (11.6), Madrid (11.3) and Ciudad Real (11.1), but still substantially below the 60% suggested to be needed to achieve herd immunity.

[147] The state of alarm expired at midnight of Sunday 21 June, and Spain entered a "new normality" phase, in which restrictions such as maximum occupancy in shops are handled by each autonomous community independently.

[16] On 17 July, in response to an increase in the number of cases in the Barcelona metropolitan area, the government of Catalonia forbade gatherings of more than 10 people in public or private spaces, and advised residents to stay at home unless strictly necessary.

[151] A number of restrictions were imposed, including closing nightclubs, banning smoking outdoors if social distancing was not possible, and compulsory wearing of face masks in public.

[177] Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, ordered the closure of bars and terraces in the capital,[178] and announced that his government is prepared, if needed, to isolate the city.

[183] On 13 April, some nonessential workers who are unable to conduct remote work were allowed to return to the office, although other social distancing measures remained in place.

In fact, according to available data, from 14 to 29 March 2020 calls to 016 (a Spanish number to help those women who suffer this kind of violence) increased by 12.43% and online consultations by 269.57% compared to the same period in the previous year.

[196] On 14 March, Asturias, Catalonia, Cantabria, Galicia, Madrid, Murcia and the Basque Country closed all shops except those selling food and basic necessities.

[210] The ruling by Constitutional Court of Spain in July 2021 rendered void all penalties for violation of citizen mobility restrictions, however it did not obliged the Government to automatically reimburse already collected fines.

[212] The government also failed to isolate the elderly in individual facilities to prevent the spread of the virus amongst the most vulnerable, as well as lacked available information on the evolution of COVID-19 cases in the country, making tracking more difficult.

However, the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC) found that Bioeasy's test kit, which uses nose swabs, had an accuracy rate of less than 30 per cent, and the city of Madrid stopped using them.

[236] As of 31 March, Intensive care units in Catalonia, Madrid, Castilla–La Mancha, and Castile and León were at or over 80% capacity, despite efforts to triple the number of beds available; most of the patients had coronavirus.

[239] Austerity measures, enacted by the previous government of Mariano Rajoy which cut billions of euros from health budgets, were blamed by some experts for reducing the capacity of the healthcare system.

[240] The Community of Madrid has asked the Military Emergencies Unit to enter the Cañada Real, the largest illegal slum in a European city, and provide assistance, because the poor living conditions there make self-isolation difficult.

[243] Sick leave benefits for employees were cut as one of the governments imposed measures to control the virus spread, resulting in increasing absence at the workplace of up to 20% more than average.

[257] The pandemic has also influenced Spain's fragile economy and finances, with economist Toni Roldán saying the country will need €200bn in loans from the European Stability Mechanism.

[282] On 9 March, Isabel Díaz Ayuso announced the cancellation of classes in the Autonomous community of Madrid at all educational levels due to the strong increase in cases in the region, which affected 1.5 million students.

[285] A Barcelona kindergarten was closed after a worker tested positive,[286] On 10 March, the Conference of Rectors of Madrid public universities (CRUMA) delayed the academic calendar, including classes, exams and enrolments, by two weeks.

[288] On 11 March, the Minister of Health of the Basque government, Nekane Murga [es], announced the closure of all schools in Álava, after 12 pupils were diagnosed with coronavirus; the measure affected more than 60,000 students.

[289] On 12 March, the regional governments of Murcia, Galicia, Catalonia, the Basque Country, Asturias, Aragon, Canary Islands, Castile-La Mancha, Navarre, Extremadura, Balearic Islands, Cantabria and the city of Melilla suspend classes at all educational levels in their respective regions,[290][291][292][non-primary source needed][293][294][295][296][297][298] [excessive citations] making a total of 14 out of 17 autonomous communities and one of the autonomous cities with school closures.

[329] A country-wide study of seroprevalence (conducted by the Ministry of Health, along the ISCIII and the INE, in partnership with the autonomous communities) on a representative sample of more than 63,000 people, determined that roughly 5.2% of the population had developed IgG antibodies for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.