On Wednesday, flags across Spain were lowered to half mast to begin 10 days of grieving and remembering those who died when Covid-19 disrupted the country.
The country’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez called it “the longest period of mourning in our democracy” in a Twitter post.
10 días, el luto más largo de nuestra democracia, con los que mostramos todo nuestro dolor y rendimos reconocimiento a quienes han fallecido. Su recuerdo permanecerá siempre con nosotros.
10 days, the longest mourning of our democracy, with which we show all our pain and pay tribute to those who have died. Your memory will always remain with us.
A similar public ritual for the world was suggested by British actor-deejay, Idris Elba as he and his wife recovered from their Covid-19 infections. His idea was slammed on social media.
During the pandemic, Spain was the second country hit after Covid-19 began to dismantle Italy. A quarantine was put into place and borders closed after authorities realized thevCovid-19 tests purchased from China were flawed. The faulty tests showed negative Covid-19 results when Spaniards were infected.
Currently, Spain reports the fourth highest infections, 283,339. It is fifth in deaths in the world with 27,117 fatalities. Most of the deaths were people over the age of 70 and centered in the country’s capital, Madrid. Countries with the highest infections outside of Spain are the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK, France, Germany, Turkey and India.
Bouncing back
While the numbers have dropped dramatically, healthcare workers protested this week for the lack of protective equipment.
“We need to guarantee that we can rest and protect ourselves so that we can carry out our work in the best possible conditions,” said intensive care nurse, Victor Aparicio, to The Local.
As Spain mourns, they are also pushing to restore their economic health as well. During the pandemic, they issued universal benefits to citizens who had to adhere to work stoppage during the nationwide quarantine.
Now they’re proposing that the European Union create green zones, or areas safe for tourism during the summer months. Spain hopes to be fully open by July. The 10 days of mourning ends on June 5.
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