Coronavirus Update: Madrid, Spain – May 25, 2020

Another month has passed since my last post, but it seems that May has gone more quickly than April, and MUCH more quickly than March.

In my last update, I wondered how much longer it was going to be until the end of lockdown. Well, just a few days later, I got my answer.

Phased De-Escalation Measures

During the last few days of April, Spain unveiled its plans for phased de-escalation of confinement measures. There would be 4 phases, starting with Phase 0. Beginning on May 2, all regions of Spain moved into Phase 0.

Phase 0 means that people are able to take walks for leisure and participate in individual exercise – yes, these things were totally banned during the previous 7 weeks. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all. Each age group only has certain hours in which they can walk or exercise:

• 6am-10am – adults
• 10am-12pm – seniors
• 12pm-7pm – children and families
• 7pm-8pm – seniors
• 8pm-11pm – adults

In Phase 0, you’re also allowed to get take-out food from restaurants rather than having to rely on delivery.

Spain’s idea was that each region should stay in each phase for 2 weeks, which is the incubation period of the virus. After 2 weeks, they could apply to move on to the next phase – as long as the situation in that region stayed at a reasonable level, rather than getting worse.

Last week almost every region in Spain – except Madrid, Barcelona, and some areas of Castilla y León – had moved to Phase 1 or even Phase 2! But finally, on Friday, we got the news that all the remaining regions in Phase 0 could move to Phase 1 – starting today!

Off the top of my head, Phase 1 means that restaurants can re-open at 30% capacity and social gatherings of 10 people or fewer are allowed (in public or private). If you’re curious and want to know more about the phases, this article is the only one I’ve been able to find that has information about each phase in English.

The Situation in Spain

During my last post, I wrote how Spain had the second-highest number of cases in the world after the United States. Things have improved a lot since then!

Now, new cases of coronavirus are often less than 1,000 per day, and new daily deaths are often less than 100. It seems that Brazil, Russia, and the United Kingdom have joined the race to the top for highest number of cases, whereas the numbers here are much slower to grow these days.

While it seems like Spain’s lockdown and de-escalation measures have been extremely well thought out – in my opinion, comparing it to what I can observe happening in the U.S. – of course, not everyone is happy.

At 8pm, Spanish people still take to their balconies to applaud the health care workers. At 9pm, however, there’s occasionally been a smattering of people standing on their balconies to bang pots and pans in protest of the government. In the past few weeks, this has escalated even further. Now, for about 15-20 minutes starting at 9pm, you’ll see and hear people walking down the streets draped in the Spanish flag, pots and pans in hand. It’s grown a lot more prevalent and a lot louder, too.

Despite this, all of the protesters generally practice social distancing, and all of them wear masks. Which leads me to believe that the spirit of the protest is different from the ones we’re seeing in the U.S.

The New Normal

Though I haven’t fully experienced Phase 1 yet, I’ll tell you a bit about what Phase 0 looked like. Honestly, it’s just a bunch of people wandering around. On the first few days that we were allowed to take walks, it was extremely weird to see SO many people all at once after not being allowed to leave the house for almost 2 months. And there are people everywhere… and they’re just walking.

Because there isn’t really anywhere to go, since businesses are closed. So everyone is wandering aimlessly just for the sake of walking.

I would say that about 2/3rds of the people on the street are wearing masks. Though it hasn’t been required until just the other day. Masks are now mandatory for everyone in closed spaces, and in public “when it’s impossible to maintain a 6-foot distance from others.”

My mom mailed me five homemade reusable masks (which cost $120 total… cool, Spain), but most Spanish people seem to have the disposable blue surgical ones. Apparently, the pharmacies are stocking them, and each resident is eligible to get some for free as well.

When I’m just walking by myself, I don’t usually wear one because it’s easy enough for me to stay far away from other people. But when I walked with Ellie – whom I met up with at a public bus station so I could socially-distantly see a friend for the first time in 2 months – we both wore masks.

Overall, I feel like Spain is adapting to a new normal. And by extension, so am I. There’s been solace in the fact that I knew I was allowed to leave the house each evening (or morning, if I could wake up early enough) for a walk… even though it’s getting too hot for me to want to do that anymore!

And knowing that tomorrow I can go to a park with a bottle of sangria and sit on the grass and talk to a friend – something that used to make up the fabric of my experience in Spain – makes it feel like coronavirus is more in the past than in the future.

I know it’s still important to be take precautions, but the level of alert – or panic – is scaled down, just being aware that the disease isn’t as rampant throughout the country as it was before. Things like going to the grocery store aren’t anxiety-ridden ordeals anymore.

Changes of Plans

Earlier this month, I was forced to take a hard look at my future plans and accept the fact that coronavirus has changed them. And there’s nothing I can do about it.

As someone who has usually been able to make things work for me, as long as I worked for them, this was a tough pill to swallow.

But there are no visa appointments at the Consulate of Spain in Chicago for the foreseeable future – even long after I get back to the U.S. And it’s unclear when Spain is even going to start allowing non-citizens to enter the country again. (Not that I can blame them… with how things have improved here, would you want to let people in from the most-affected country on earth?)

So I’ve been struggling with the fact that the plans I’ve had for myself probably aren’t going to happen on my preferred timeline.

When I leave Spain at the beginning of July, it’s going to be harder than I expected. I don’t know when I’m going to be back. Though I had planned on leaving some of my things with friends, now it seems like I should take everything home. And it’s going to be difficult feeling like my time here didn’t end on my terms. The last 4 months of my two years in Spain will have been spent in isolation in my apartment.

If anything, I think it strengthens my resolve to make Spain part of my future. I don’t feel like I’m finished here.

But in the meantime, I’ve accepted that I’ll be back in Kansas City for a bit. There are good things about this! I can move into Matt’s new house and can be with him… without feeling like there’s a time limit, for the first time since we’ve been together. And I’ll be able to see my family, and I’m becoming an aunt in a few weeks!

(Of course there are bad things too… mainly, the fact that hEaLtH iNsUrAnCe CoStS LiKe $300 a mOnTh?!?!?!?! And then you still have an $8,000 deductible. Hell naw.)

But assuming it’s safe enough to travel again by October or so, Matt and I are considering the idea of jetting off somewhere new to live/work remotely for a few months until Christmas… so that’s at least giving me hope for some excitement in the near-distant future. 🙂

 

Hopefully now you feel like you know everything about coronavirus in Spain… things ARE getting better!

And I hope they’re getting better for you too, wherever you are.

-Cathy

Originally Published on May 25, 2020.