What the UK can learn from Spain’s response to the Coronavirus

Thursday, 19th March, 2020

With COVID-19 cases rising rapidly in the UK, it’s been clear for some days that a major crisis is unfolding in London. Yet in the capital — and across the wider country — many people have not taken government advice and the protection of others seriously enough. People have continued to congregate in restaurants, bars and pubs all week. Most recklessly of all, some have even been meeting for parties. Such flagrant disregard for precautionary advice must make for infuriating reading for those living under lockdown in the EU.

Thankfully, probing questions about what action the government intends to take with regard to London have been posed to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. Newspapers are now suggesting that a London lockdown is imminent and will form part of the government’s so-called Coronavirus Bill. However, with the nation on the verge of its biggest crisis since the Second World War, the government is still yet to act emphatically to halt the spread of the pandemic.  

While taking the bold step to put London on lockdown is a welcome one, the government must also take serious measures to ensure people travelling from large cities like London (or from other countries) to other parts of the UK take care to not infect the communities of their parents, grandparents, family and friends. Indeed, if the capital alone is put on lockdown, how will the government ensure people will not pour out of the capital en masse and spread the disease to large areas of the UK overnight, as has been seen in Spain?

Spain is another country in which the capital was the first place to suffer a large-scale outbreak. Less than two weeks after the beginning of the outbreak in Madrid, the entire population of Spain is now in its fifth day of a full-scale, government-sanctioned lockdown. Spain has the third-highest number of new cases in the world — with more than 100 people dying each day. These numbers show no sign of abating over the coming days.

Spain’s country-wide lockdown will likely cripple its economy. Nobody in Spain can leave their homes, hotels or apartments unless they are going to buy food, medicine, seek medical attention or for other reasons that meet the official criteria of extenuating circumstances. Spain, which suffered so greatly in the 2008 economic crisis, is now bracing itself for another economic disaster. To compound the sense of foreboding, the country is also running out of vital health supplies such as facemasks and soap. Police vehicles with mounted loudspeakers patrol even small towns and warn residents to stay inside. When people do venture outside they must explain to police where they are going and provide evidence for why they are going. Anyone who doesn’t comply is sent home and risks being fined. Motorways are strictly controlled by the police and the army. Public transport is heavily limited. The streets are sterilised twice a day.

But why is the coronavirus crisis so bad in Spain? Ask any Spaniard, citizen or resident of the country and they will give you a frank answer: the incompetence and inaction of both the national government and local governments like the Community of Madrid. 

The country was ill-prepared and the Madrid outbreak was not contained. On Monday 9th March, Madrid authorities closed schools and universities in the capital and the surrounding region for a week, warning that further isolation measures were imminent. However, they failed to advise the national government. 

During that week it is predicted that hundreds of thousands of people from Madrid, poured out of the capital and surrounding areas to their second and family homes at the coast and in the countryside as well as hotels and Airbnbs. They went to coastal and countryside regions such as Valencia, Galicia, Murcia, and Andalucia — exponentially spreading the virus around the entire country. 

The situation is tragic and to see its progression from afar while our government does nothing in response to London is very difficult. As of yesterday, Spain had the third-highest number of new cases of the virus. Up until today, 638 people have already lost their lives. By not isolating Madrid sooner, doctors have predicted that the actions (or inaction) of the government has served to multiply the infection rate twofold or even threefold. 

I recently returned to the UK for treatment for an injury last Wednesday. As it stands, I cannot return to my girlfriend, friends and life in Spain for the foreseeable future. The day I left Seville (Wednesday 11th March — what a difference a week makes), people were slightly more anxious than they had been in the preceding days, yet still outwardly calm. They were still drinking beer in bars and eating tapas. A mere two days later, the country was all but locked down with all schools shut. 

By Friday, the police and the army had finally begun to close the motorways and stop the people of Madrid and the Basque country (two areas with significant infection rates), travelling around the country. However, the damage was already done. The very next day, Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced the beginning of a tough and necessary national lockdown. 

Ultimately, history will show us that the Spanish government and authorities in Madrid did not act quickly enough, and this inaction  continues to have disastrous consequences. Unless urgent, across-the-board action is taken by Johnson’s government, the UK may be doomed to repeat Spain’s fatal lack of foresight.

A national lockdown to ensure the virus is contained should now be a strong consideration for a government that has promised to do “whatever it takes.” While this may sound drastic, it is an absolutely necessary measure to contain the worst pandemic since the Spanish Flu of 1918-1920. It’s high time we learn from other nations and act to save thousands of lives before it is too late.