As Spain rolls into its 10th day of a strict coronavirus lockdown, the quiet on the streets of Madrid is both startling and eerie. Aside from birds chirping and church bells ringing, there is almost nothing to break the deafening silence.
This is a country of talkers, and the absence of rapidly spoken Castellano spilling forth from the streets and apartments to either side of mine has an end-of-the-world feel to it. But while the U.S. and now the U.K. are only just starting to come to terms with the realities of coronavirus restrictions, in Spain the message is being received loud and clear by most everyone.
Exhausted Spanish doctors and nurses — more than 10% have been infected — lost their battles to save more than 800 lives between Saturday and Monday. The pandemic’s death toll in Spain rose by another 514 on Tuesday to 2,696, with nearly 40,000 infections. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned the “worst is yet to come” for an already strained health-care system that still lacks enough protective gear for workers. Hotels and an exhibition center with 5,500 beds have been set up as hospitals in Madrid, and an ice-skating rink will serve as a makeshift morgue.
For obvious reasons, Spain’s Congress is likely to approve another 15 days of emergency measures on Wednesday. That means staying at home (#quedateencasa) with only one member of my household allowed out at any one a time for food, medicine or a doctor visit. Fines of up to 600,000 euros face offenders — the police will chase you on horseback if they have to:
Dog owners, who are allowed to take their pets out briefly, are looked upon with envy, with memes circulating about exhausted pets being excessively walked. Police shamed over social media one goat owner who tried and failed to circumvent the rules a few days ago on the Costa Brava. Have my children thought about trying to walk our cat? Definitely.
As some New Yorkers are roasted for escaping to the Hamptons, the exodus of Madrid residents to their second houses that started almost two weeks ago has been stopped by police and civil guards lining the outskirts of the city. Much as in Italy, the rapid spread of the virus across the country has been partly blamed on residents who left the highly infected Madrid region for homes elsewhere.
On the home front, 10 days into the lockdown and my children are sleeping more and struggling with headaches, each other, online homework and aching for absent family, teachers and friends. Tutoring via Skype has become viable, and on Monday the government began televised classes for kids 8 to 16 years old, with different subjects each day for specific age groups, including physical education. But we lose the “school is in session” battle more days than not.
Barbara Kollmeyer/MarketWatch And everyone in my house seems hungry all the time. Unlike three weeks ago, I can tell you what’s in my refrigerator down to the last carrot. The early days of a lockdown fill many with panic, and everyone is now familiar with hoarding scenarios, but there is nothing more distracting than food worries. And no one wants to go out when it feels like everyone else, at least potentially, is infected, even if Spanish supermarket workers don gloves and masks, with plexiglass at the checkouts in some stores.
No doubt some in the U.K. and U.S. are rightly feeling the loss of liberties, but if you can take a stroll, or have a big house with a backyard (or just a big house), most apartment dwellers in Madrid or Barcelona would gladly trade. We all worry about the mental health of kids cooped up, especially teens who are used to so much freedom. That’s as the workday smashes into home life severely at times — my next Amazon order will include at least two pairs of noise-canceling headphones.
Barbara Kollmeyer/MarketWatch Where’s the good in all this? An appreciation for what we have and time — often exasperating though it may be — with loved ones and endless support from friends and family reaching out from all over, all with varying virus concerns of their own. Then there are the games and projects, home movies and pesky chores, and the deep cleaning that we’ve never had time for before. The nightly serenading of health-care workers from balconies helps connect us with neighbors and is a very welcome reminder that everyone is in the same fight.
We’ve gone from 0 to nearly 40,000 infected in just 24 days in Spain, and our home confinement will remain until that starts to slow, and maybe then some. Our hopes rose this week with news of Italy’s falling infections and some sense of freedom returning to China’s locked-down Wuhan and its Hubei Province. Spain dreams of also doing even the smallest of victory laps.
div > iframe { width: 100% !important; min-width: 300px; max-width: 800px; } ]]>
Add Comment