To wonder what is happening in Spain with Covid

[Snowrabbit]

I have family links to Spain and the huge, densely populated region where my contacts are living have very, very few restrictions! Bars and restaurants are open (reduced numbers), allowed people in your home etc. Yes there's is a curfew (at 11pm) but life is pretty normal. They have had far less restrictions than us for months. Why on earth are our cases running rampant despite loads of restrictions and their lives are pretty normal and no reports of hospitals struggling (they were struggling a lot in March so it's not that they have huge capacity compared to us) Feel envious(!) and struggle to understand what's happening.

@thistooshallpas5 yes of course. I'm just puzzled that a huge area like Madrid permits things like bars, restaurants and home socialising and cases are not rising exponentially when in the UK, cases have been rising for ages and at least in my area (also huge), these activities have been banned for months. One day of indoor socialising at Christmas was forecast to be a huge disaster yet it's permitted every day in say, Madrid. Weird I think.

I am not sure if you are getting the full picture.

I live in Catalunya. Here masks are obligatory for anyone over the age of 6 from the second they leave the house. I live in a flat. I must wear a mask to leave the trash outside the front door.

In schools - kids over the age of 6 must wear a mask all day. No excuses. Teachers also wear masks. Regular hand washing. Temperature checks.

I have already tested positive for antibodies in August. I had a very mild fever for an hour or so on Friday night. I have to get tested for covid again tomorrow morning. Between Friday night and tomorrow morning not allowed to leave the house.

If you go for a test, for any reason, you must stay at home entirely until the result comes back. If you have to test because of being in contact with someone with covid, you must have a test (no, you can't refuse) and even if it comes back negative you must isolate for 10 days.
Restaurants and bars are allowed to open between 0700 and 0900 and 1300 and 1500. That's it (might be 0730 - 0930 but it's basically 2 hours at breakfast, 2 hours at lunch).

Testibg is easy to access but also absolutely mandatory in some circumstances. There is no home testing unless you have private insurance in which case a nurse can come to your home and test for you. You don't get to opt out of tests. Just not a thing.

I've read about the races in the UK. We just had one happen here too. Difference is every single person in attendance will be fined 3000 euros and the organizers are looking at a 600000 euro fine. They are 2 people aged 22 and 29.

The police here walk around with absolute authority. You cannot argue with them. You will be fined if they want to (not wearing a mask outside is a fine on the spot).

There is no "sunshine lanyard". The medical exemption thing exists only for extreme cases, requires a signed doctor's letter and only entitles you to wear your mask covering only your mouth, not to go "maskless". This includes outside. You literally never ever see anyone in a shop or on public transport without a mask. Ever. And face shields aren't accepted.

The list goes on but we are far from living normally. Also.... Here when the schools shut.... They shut. Completely. Bolted doors. No keyworkers kids exceptions.... Just shut. If they shut again will be the same.

School not going back here until 11th of January and also not sure that won't get delayed, to be honest. Also, here when a rule comes in you get hours of notice... Not days.

But the biggest thing is that the consequences for non compliance with the rules are really really serious.

We aren't living normally at all. We are living under very strictly enforced rules.... Not "guidelines".

As a final point, we were confined for 10 days over Christmas because my son's basketball team had a positive case. They only ever train outside yet everyone had to get tested and lock in.

OH. Abd the curfew of 10pm - 6am where you aren't allowed out

That's Catalunya though. Madrid, well.... They are a little more loose.

*raves not races!

I get there are rules. But ours are still much, much stricter. Compared to where I am, Madrid and even Catalonia is a paradise of freedom!

That's as maybe, @Snowrabbit but the other major thing is that we were literally locked in the apartment for 11 weeks in March. My children did not see fresh air for 11 solid weeks (apartment, no outside space).

Many of us remember that imprisonment and are terrified of returning to it and so rule compliance is high for that reason also. It's not only the fines. It's the fear of returning to house arrest for months with no end in sight. No daily exercise.... Nothing. That is another thing. People are scared not just of the virus.. But if that.

Also here many people are still waiting for their furlough payments. From March. Because there is a backlog.

I'm afraid that the UK as a whole has a population more allowing of exceptional ism than Spain. I find it wild to see pictures of people in shops in UK maskless. It literally doesn't happen here. Asthma, panic attacks, lung difficulties.... Here the deal is well.... You better order online or get someone to do your shopping because you aren't going in the supermarket without covering your face. Full stop.

Deaths per 100k aren't that different to the UK
source

Masks are a huge thing. everyone wears them in other countries. They need to abolish mask exemptions here but too many people complain about it.

Funny how there are no mask exemptions anywhere else and complete compliance but people in the UK seem to think they should deserve special treatment, even though multiple charities have dismissed the damage done by mask wearing conspiracies that are floating around the internet.

But, just because a strain has first been seen as present in the Uk doesn’t mean that it is unique to the UK and won’t spread elsewhere. We already know of cases in Canada that are not linked to the UK, and reality is that the variant will spread around the world most likely through no fault of ours.

The lockdowns were horrendous but so were some of the responses, with people being left dead in care homes for days and weeks when the staff had all left.

Italy’s death rate is also higher than ours now and Germany recorded 100000 cases recently.

We like to thik that it’s only the UK who are doing badly at this, but reality is that everyone is.

*think

“all Misshapencha0s
Hilaria, is that you?”
🤣

We've had 4th highest death rate in Europe after Belgium, Spain and Italy according to Le Monde figures. I last checked a couple of days ago. The table isn't working on my phone now so could have changed in the last few days, but that's how it was for a while

Same as EveryDay's table above is showing

I don't agree with the policy of banning people leaving the house for exercise and don't think there's a scientific basis for it. Lots of people are able to leave their home for a walk with no risk of spreading covid. I only live just outside Greater London but can go for a walk to the park round the corner without going anywhere near close enough to anyone to spread it.

OP - why has Spain no rules or restrictions and yet has much lower figures than us?

People who live in Spain - we have lots of rules and restrictions and we follow them or get fined

OP - yes, BUT Spain doesn't really have restrictions compared to UK, why is everything normal there?

People who live in Spain - we really do have LOTS of rules and restrictions, life isn't normal here

OP - yes, BUT....

anyone noticing the same pattern?

The UK is always hit harder then places such as Spain during the cold and flu season. Did we really think it would be any different with covid?!

The weather, being stuck indoors, small spaces, lack of social distancing, poor ventilation, the lack of mask wearing (unis/schools!), the inconsistent infection control measures, and the new strain, have all played apart.

I just can't get my head around that people thought things wouldn't be covid-shit here in Britain given how prevalent viruses are during the months of September to April. The govt were/are ill-prepared fools. But ,no, let's just send millions of students back to universities and schools instead of offering remote learning (and with no masks, to boot!) back in September.
The annoying thing is they still aren't getting it right!! Mask wearing should be mandatory everywhere! Hand-sanitiser should be everywhere.

Sorry, it's late, rant over.

Spanish police are armed, so are other police forces. You don't argue with someone with a gun, psychologically you are more wary.

Maybe their government hasn't done u turns every 5 minutes ' get partying' 'don't party' 'eat out' 'don't eat out' 'go back to your offices' 'work from home' 'everyone back to school, no masks required' ' close the schools- er some schools' !!

Doesn't looking like they are doing better than the UK?

Honestly @Snowrabbit you keep repeating the same thing over and over. Read all the replies and maybe check the ones from people who live in Spain.

Also I would say here we don't have "guidelines" we have strictly enforced rules. When we we recently confined because o my son having a close contact o was told that should remember that the police do random checks and that the fines for non compliance are into the thousands.

So for example the guy on another thread who wandered over to a friend's house to say a socially distanced hi in h garden while waiting for his test result had he been caught would have been looking at a fine of "between 100 and 600000 euros" and the ones in the newspaper for that kind of infracciones have been around the 3000 - 10000 mark.

House parties with a couple of extra guests over the limit? 10000 for the organiser, 3000 for each attendee.

In the confinement in March my friend was fined 600 euros because the police checked her shopping and because she had only bought a couple of cans of coke and a chocolate bar it was deemed an unnecessary journey. Another friend walked "the long way round" to the supermarket.... 600 euros. Another friend went to a supermarket am extra 2 kilometers away (ie not her nearest geographically) 609 euros.

Also in schools the bubbles are 20 kids, max. In my sons year they were 24 per class pre pandemic. Extra teacher brought In and there are now 3 streams not 2 and each has a maximum of 15 kids.

And so on, and so on.

Oh and another thing about masks. Although the age where masks are required is 6, it's rare to see kids over the age of about 2 out and about without one.

The obvious answer is that we've had the new variant longer and it's more widespread. The rest of Europe will "catch up" soon enough

Much stricter initial lockdown. Police on streets challenging and fining. Far less whinging about mask wearing and greater compliance, my 2 year old GDC wears one.
In the schools I know of, all learning is on devices, so paper not being handled by multiple people. In the school I work in (UK) still using books in school, marking, book inspections still happening.

Boris should have come down hard on Cummings and his trips. We now have people travelling all over UK to beauty spots, to look at snow etc.

They were masks. None of this ‘well I can’t wear one because reasons’ malarkey where you go to the supermarket and a quarter of people are wandering around maskless and nobody can challenge them. I even had one mask less person reaching over my head to get a loaf of bread in Sainsbury’s yesterday so not only no mask, no distancing. In the same Sainsbury’s, a family were treating it as a day out. Dad wore mask, three kids running around next to people laughing and yelling with no masks so the dad may as well of removed his because everyone in the shop was being exposed to what the family had anyway in our Tier 4 area.

In places like Spain you were a mask or you don’t go out. You buy online or someone buys for you.

My understanding is that travel is limited to within their principalities, ie don’t leave town. Literally a few km