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Spain under lock down

Belgium has moved 6 Spanish regions (Aragon, Catalonia, Extremadura, La Rioja, Navarra and the Basque country) onto "orange", meaning that travellers returning from any of those are "recommended" to test, once back on Belgian soil.

Huesca and Lleida are on "red" and anyone returning from there is mandated to quarantine.

Meanwhile Catalonia has ordained that "amusement" ceases by shutting down discotheques, dance halls, other "musical" venues and ordered a midnight curfew on casinos and bingo places.

The whole industry is, of course :roll:, challenging all of this in court.

Gives granting Catalonia independence a whole new angle, but only if it is subsequently barb-wired in completely. :doh
 
Chagos said:
Belgium has moved 6 Spanish regions (Aragon, Catalonia, Extremadura, La Rioja, Navarra and the Basque country) onto "orange", meaning that travellers returning from any of those are "recommended" to test, once back on Belgian soil.

Huesca and Lleida are on "red" and anyone returning from there is mandated to quarantine.

Meanwhile Catalonia has ordained that "amusement" ceases by shutting down discotheques, dance halls, other "musical" venues and ordered a midnight curfew on casinos and bingo places.

The whole industry is, of course :roll:, challenging all of this in court.

Gives granting Catalonia independence a whole new angle, but only if it is subsequently barb-wired in completely. :doh
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And the UK has put a 14 day quarantine for all who return from Spain from midnight...except from Mallorca and Canaries....which makes zero sense, but that is of course standard when it comes to Boris and his policies.

Ironically the Minister of transport arrived in mainland Spain today so he has to quarantine when he goes home...he is also the one who technically put the new policy in place.

I can fully understand putting some sort of restrictions from travellers coming from Catalonia, Aragon and maybe Murcia. But the rest of Spain is safe.

What Belgium did is smart. What the UK has done is stupid.

Sent from my Honor 8X
 
PeteEU said:
And the UK has put a 14 day quarantine for all who return from Spain from midnight...except from Mallorca and Canaries....which makes zero sense, but that is of course standard when it comes to Boris and his policies.

Ironically the Minister of transport arrived in mainland Spain today so he has to quarantine when he goes home...he is also the one who technically put the new policy in place.

I can fully understand putting some sort of restrictions from travellers coming from Catalonia, Aragon and maybe Murcia. But the rest of Spain is safe.

What Belgium did is smart. What the UK has done is stupid.

Sent from my Honor 8X
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The Spanish Government's making the point that the infection rates in the Canaries and Balearics are lower than in the UK. The gov are so stupid the Transport Secretary probably set himself up as a sacrificial lamb, or 'chivo expiatorio', to reframe the narrative from Dominic Cummings's lockdown walkabouts.

The rigorous checks the UK Gov are going to enforce are world-beating in their rigor:

Travellers from affected countries - including UK nationals - are asked to provide an address where they will self-isolate for 14 days. They can be fined £100 for failing to fill in a form with these details.

One in five eligible passengers will be called or texted to check they are following the rules.

Coronavirus: What are the UK travel quarantine rules? - BBC News
 
Sven Karma said:
The Spanish Government's making the point that the infection rates in the Canaries and Balearics are lower than in the UK. The gov are so stupid the Transport Secretary probably set himself up as a sacrificial lamb, or 'chivo expiatorio', to reframe the narrative from Dominic Cummings's lockdown walkabouts.

The rigorous checks the UK Gov are going to enforce are world-beating in their rigor:

Travellers from affected countries - including UK nationals - are asked to provide an address where they will self-isolate for 14 days. They can be fined £100 for failing to fill in a form with these details.

One in five eligible passengers will be called or texted to check they are following the rules.

Coronavirus: What are the UK travel quarantine rules? - BBC News
Click to expand...
Those buffoons won't be able to effect that either, seeing how by now they clearly show as being incapable of counting up to five.
 
PeteEU said:
As someone experiencing it first hand, here are some insights. 7000+ infected and 292 deaths.

The lock down is considerable. You are only allowed out of your home for specific things and need ID and proof on what you are doing. Police and soon military are out in force.

Things that are allowed.

Food shopping and pharmacy visits. Tobacco shop visit.. Yea I know. IT shops/businesses..somewhat strange. Newspaper stores. Banking. Hairdressers were allowed, but it has changed to home visits only...another strange one.

Doctor visits. Hospital visits.

Visiting vulnerable family members.

Dog walking but only alone. When dog has done business then back you go. If you are 2 people, then you get fined.

Work. Buses and subways/trains still run locally.

Drones and helicopters are being used to find law breakers.

Visiting neighbours in the same building is forbidden, but dunno how they can enforce it.

The first fines and arrests have already happened on day 1, aka today Sunday. The police say they will enforce fully from Monday as most people got off with warnings today. The first arrest was a 20 year old out on his bike and of course he refused to identify himself and tried to run...idiot. First fines were drunk Brits from what I understand.

Fines range from 100 euros to 600k and imprisonment.

Amazon pantry is all but empty, but supermarkets will now be open every day including Sundays in many areas. Sunday opening usually only happens in summer.

Buses ran normally today but were mostly empty. Will see tomorrow if people will use them since the bus drives right by me.

Traffic is down 90% where I am and the hum from the main motorway 7 km away is almost gone.

10 pm last night people showed thier gratitude by clapping enmass out of windows and balconies in many towns across the country...dont under estimate the power of WhatsApp.

That was day 1.. 14 more days to go.

On the bright side, stuff can be done around the house and perfect time to diet some....

Sent from my Honor 8X
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On the surface that sounds mighty grim but then one realizes it is only for two weeks or maybe a month, then it doesn't seem so terrible. At least over there it sounds like most want to cooperate and kill this thing in its tracks.
Here, you have millions of MORONS who think it's an attack on their freedoms or an evil government plot.
Hence why we are practically MARINATING in this virus for six months running.

We have MILLIONS of MORONS and even the virus isn't killing the morons faster than they can crawl out of the woodwork.
If it did, our trouble would have been behind us long ago.

THIS BELOW is what OUR virus situation looks like:

Dead Confederates CV19.jpg
 
Sven Karma said:
The Spanish Government's making the point that the infection rates in the Canaries and Balearics are lower than in the UK. The gov are so stupid the Transport Secretary probably set himself up as a sacrificial lamb, or 'chivo expiatorio', to reframe the narrative from Dominic Cummings's lockdown walkabouts.

The rigorous checks the UK Gov are going to enforce are world-beating in their rigor:

Travellers from affected countries - including UK nationals - are asked to provide an address where they will self-isolate for 14 days. They can be fined £100 for failing to fill in a form with these details.

One in five eligible passengers will be called or texted to check they are following the rules.

Coronavirus: What are the UK travel quarantine rules? - BBC News
Click to expand...
The infection rate is lower in all of Spain except Catalonia, Murcia and Aragon.... thats what makes the decision idiotic.

But I suspect there is Brexit maneuvering going on...

But it is backfiring... Jet 2 is ignoring the Government.

Sent from my Honor 8X
 
PeteEU said:
The infection rate is lower in all of Spain except Catalonia, Murcia and Aragon.... thats what makes the decision idiotic.

But I suspect there is Brexit maneuvering going on...

But it is backfiring... Jet 2 is ignoring the Government.

Sent from my Honor 8X
Click to expand...
With TUI, the UKs largest now that Cook is gone, cancelling all its flights to and from Spain and any holiday of course.

At least til August-09.

Not for other Europeans though.

Yet.
 
Checkerboard Strangler said:
On the surface that sounds mighty grim but then one realizes it is only for two weeks or maybe a month, then it doesn't seem so terrible. At least over there it sounds like most want to cooperate and kill this thing in its tracks.
Click to expand...
bit late to the party here aint'cha?;)

The national lockdown here went on for months and is coming back in some regions
Here, you have millions of MORONS who think it's an attack on their freedoms or an evil government plot.
Hence why we are practically MARINATING in this virus for six months running.

We have MILLIONS of MORONS and even the virus isn't killing the morons faster than they can crawl out of the woodwork.
If it did, our trouble would have been behind us long ago.

THIS BELOW is what OUR virus situation looks like:
Click to expand...
In this you are, however, completely current.:lol:
 
Chagos said:
bit late to the party here aint'cha?;)

The national lockdown here went on for months and is coming back in some regions
In this you are, however, completely current.:lol:
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I was aware of the months long lockdowns but Pete was talking about the two week reset, so I was only referring to the two week reset. Most Southern states NEVER LOCKED DOWN at ALL.
The USA has been in a cold or soft civil war for a decade or more.
We are two countries, and with a president who relishes the role of antagonist, we're teetering on the brink of a hot war now.
The Trump right is convinced that everyone else doesn't have the courage or guts to fight back.
They mistake our lack of response to their never ending line of threats as weakness.

Of course, that's what happened 165 years ago, too...much to their shock and dismay.
Now add in a deadly virus and their refusal to accept science and you can see where this is headed.
 
Checkerboard Strangler said:
I was aware of the months long lockdowns but Pete was talking about the two week reset, so I was only referring to the two week reset. Most Southern states NEVER LOCKED DOWN at ALL.
The USA has been in a cold or soft civil war for a decade or more.
We are two countries, and with a president who relishes the role of antagonist, we're teetering on the brink of a hot war now.
The Trump right is convinced that everyone else doesn't have the courage or guts to fight back.
They mistake our lack of response to their never ending line of threats as weakness.

Of course, that's what happened 165 years ago, too...much to their shock and dismay.
Now add in a deadly virus and their refusal to accept science and you can see where this is headed.
Click to expand...
Also completely current.:thumbs:
 
Chagos said:
Those buffoons won't be able to effect that either, seeing how by now they clearly show as being incapable of counting up to five.
Click to expand...

The fish rots from the head on that one since we still don't know how many children BoJo has.

PeteEU said:
The infection rate is lower in all of Spain except Catalonia, Murcia and Aragon.... thats what makes the decision idiotic.

But I suspect there is Brexit maneuvering going on...

But it is backfiring... Jet 2 is ignoring the Government.

Sent from my Honor 8X
Click to expand...

'Manoeuvring' is a kind way of saying 'flapping about like a headless chicken' lol
 
Sven Karma said:
The fish rots from the head on that one since we still don't know how many children BoJo has.
Click to expand...
neither does he, probably. But yeah, that merely confirms the point.
'Manoeuvring' is a kind way of saying 'flapping about like a headless chicken' lol
Click to expand...
Indeed, demented hens have no plan.
 
Chagos said:
neither does he, probably. But yeah, that merely confirms the point.
Indeed, demented hens have no plan.
Click to expand...

Too many plans perhaps, Cummings can easily come up with a dozen cunning plans before breakfast.

The gov is running radio ads 'check! change! go!' 'Let's get going for the UK's new start' and the list of people named goes ' ... makers, holiday-makers ...' so that's looking good.
 
Sven Karma said:
The Spanish Government's making the point that the infection rates in the Canaries and Balearics are lower than in the UK. The gov are so stupid the Transport Secretary probably set himself up as a sacrificial lamb, or 'chivo expiatorio', to reframe the narrative from Dominic Cummings's lockdown walkabouts.

The rigorous checks the UK Gov are going to enforce are world-beating in their rigor:

Travellers from affected countries - including UK nationals - are asked to provide an address where they will self-isolate for 14 days. They can be fined £100 for failing to fill in a form with these details.

One in five eligible passengers will be called or texted to check they are following the rules.

Coronavirus: What are the UK travel quarantine rules? - BBC News
Click to expand...

this whole mess could be avoided if customs screen arrivals into the country like every other country and do scans of there temperatures and give them priority testing so that the few that have the virus are the ones that need to self isolate ... anyhoo the areas affected are far away from the normal holiday destinations ... it really is a shambles and causing unnecessary panic
 
Chagos said:
The continuous incomprehension of what face masks actually do never ceases to astound me. As does their equally continuous and tiresome comparison to respiratory masks.

And where you have already known this forever, I'll repeat it for those with reading problems and reading comprehension problems:

The "run of the mill" face mask is not designed to protect the wearer from other people's aerosols, it's designed to protect them from the wearer. And while nobody claims that this protection works 100 pct, it keeps the lion's share of YOUR aerosols (during cough or sneeze or even singing "I'm the man who broke the bank of Monte Carlo" at the top of your lungs) away from them.

Of course that works the other way round just as well and in that understanding everybody should wear one.

As to there being no need to wear them outside in parks or in the streets when nobody is near, we've all seen how that goes wrt proximity. To the point of needing special task forces who darn well super-glue the masks onto the mugs of the stupid morons, even if those account for a miniscule percentage of the overall (and generally sensible) population.

Brighton beach anyone or Playa de Palma?:roll:
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I guess by the beach comment you're referring to Spain's rule about masks not being obligatory on the beach, where the lion's share of YOUR aerosols (during cough or sneeze or even singing "I'm the man who broke the bank of Monte Carlo" at the top of your lungs) don't appear as risky as say in a park.
 
Snazzy said:
I guess by the beach comment you're referring to Spain's rule about masks not being obligatory on the beach, where the lion's share of YOUR aerosols (during cough or sneeze or even singing "I'm the man who broke the bank of Monte Carlo" at the top of your lungs) don't appear as risky as say in a park.
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That, and the propensity of people piling up on the beaches like sardines in a tin.

Whether you take the UK, Spain or any other country, be it about beaches or parks.

Trouble being that, where perhaps the vast majority of people answer positively to the appeal to common sense and responsible behavior, it's the minority that counts, even if it is small in numbers.

Anyone fulfilling the criteria of common sense and responsibility stays away from either.
 
Chagos said:
That, and the propensity of people piling up on the beaches like sardines in a tin.

Whether you take the UK, Spain or any other country, be it about beaches or parks.

Trouble being that, where perhaps the vast majority of people answer positively to the appeal to common sense and responsible behavior, it's the minority that counts, even if it is small in numbers.

Anyone fulfilling the criteria of common sense and responsibility stays away from either.
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Not here. Depends on the council area, but all have limits on the number of people allowed on the beaches and personnel making sure people are setting up camp at a social distancing range plus constantly cleaning bathrooms and public areas. Some beaches even have 2x2 boxes marked out on the sand and people can use those.

Only place that I know off where it went pear shaped was in Barcelona, because the Catalan government did not put in place restrictions fast enough and enforce them.


Sent from my Honor 8X
 
PeteEU said:
Not here. Depends on the council area, but all have limits on the number of people allowed on the beaches and personnel making sure people are setting up camp at a social distancing range plus constantly cleaning bathrooms and public areas. Some beaches even have 2x2 boxes marked out on the sand and people can use those.
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They seem to be quite on the ball where you are Pete, which is relief for the locals.

I don't see why these measures cannot be applied to parks as well. After all, if this "new normal" is a long term thing and masks are here to stay for the foreseeable future, then if it's good for the beach, it's good for the park.
 
Snazzy said:
They seem to be quite on the ball where you are Pete, which is relief for the locals.

I don't see why these measures cannot be applied to parks as well. After all, if this "new normal" is a long term thing and masks are here to stay for the foreseeable future, then if it's good for the beach, it's good for the park.
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Simple... far far far more parks than beaches spread over a much wider area. Also parks are not used nearly as much as beaches.

Saying that, my local government does send out cleaners once a day to those parks that they know are popular, and other counties do the same. But lets put this way.. There are 12 beaches in my county, plus another 6 or so in the county next to ours (more like we are around that county). They are easy to cover, and control.

Now parks.. today while going from clients to clients and KFC (sue me, I am weak), I passed or walked through 7 different sized parks... From my client to KFC is about 800-900 meters. So you see the scale of the problem? How to keep them clean from the virus.. very hard.

As for big ass parks, like our local water park (private company), they of course have no problem securing cleaning and all that jazz... but public open space parks.... auch.
 
Day whatever.. and the dreaded second wave is somewhat here. On the Costa del Sol there has been 360 new cases this week, but they are concentrated around the Marbella area with 145 cases there.

The other cases mentioned before have cleared up for the most part or under full control, but Marbella is worrying. It has also spread to my area, where we have 25 confirmed cases this week. Now to put that in perspective, during the first phase of the pandemic, we had around a 100 cases in 3 months. So it is significant. I suspect that the people infected work in the Marbella area, as all areas that "feed" workers to Marbella are showing cases and the further you go, the less cases there are.

Now the question is why. Well Marbella is wealthy tourist party town area, so that could be one issue. Wealthy tourists have been flying in on private planes and what not. Another one that the right wing of course will use instead, is the fact we have seen an uptick in refugees/illegal immigrants landing on beaches and even escaping from detention centres. Many of these have been diagnosed with Covid. There is presently a man hunt going on in the Cadiz area for 3 guys who bolted from a centre before the tests came back.

One thing I have noticed, is young people meeting up and drinking.. something that is normal but it is without masks and social distancing (and lots of ass grabbing). Considering the average age of the new patients is nearing 35, then they seem to be a root cause of the problem.

Other than that, mask wearing is mostly observed in the areas I come in, but I have seen pictures and videos from the fancy expensive night clubs in Marbella where it is business as usual.. which can explain the outbreak.

Elsewhere in the country we are seeing continuing outbreaks up north, but the numbers seem to have somewhat stabilized. The next week will see if they have gotten a handle on it in Catalonia, Aragon and the Basque country.

Tourist wise, the missing British tourists are being felt, even though the beaches are fullish every day ... but it is expected that the area should have 40% of normal activity which is bad, but to be honest I had feared worse.
 
Snazzy said:
Looks like this measure may be rolled out across Spain.

"The Spanish region of Galicia has effectively banned smoking in public places over concerns it increases the risk of Covid-19 transmission"

Coronavirus: Spain's Galicia region bans smoking over Covid-19 risk - BBC News
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This smells more like a political excuse than an actual method to combat the spread of the virus. Considering that Galicia is one of the regions with the fewest cases, then I suspect it is more political opportunism to finally get rid of smoking public places.
 
It is a little hard to describe the situation in Spain because of all the political manoeuvring going on in Spain and in other countries.

I also think that the Spanish definition of an outbreak is causing more harm than anything else. Why? Because the journalists are lazy as **** or politically biased against Spain and see the word outbreak and not the definition. There are over 550 outbreaks presently in Spain, but most are under 10 people.. and as an outbreak is defined as 3 people or more, that are connected. So a family of 5 who get infected is counted as 1 outbreak.

What is somewhat positive, is that the number of cases have somewhat plateaued in most of the country. By this I mean, we are not seeing 1500 one day, 2000 next day, 3000 next day and so on.. the new cases are hovering around 1500 to 2000. There is one "asterix" and that is that the Madrid region is having "technical difficulties" and its numbers are not included. This does not help the political manoeuvring one bit, as last week it was the Basque country and Catalonia that had similar problems.

We are seeing infection rates similar to early March or early to mid May. Funny enough that is similar to what most countries are seeing. My home country is seeing infection numbers that look like mid May. The UK is seeing infection numbers go up as well, as is Germany and France. And yet there is a lot of focus on Spain for some reason. I do wish that governments and media would focus on active cases and not total cases.. as we are so far in the pandemic that having 330k total cases means jack****.. it is the active cases that matter. But every newspaper in Spain starts out with the total cases and bla bla.. who cares! We want the active cases and finding that number can be damn hard if not next to impossible.

However, the make up of the new cases is very different. 70%+ are asymptomatic and the average age is under 40. Number of hospitalisations are of course up, but not in the early March numbers or mid May ones. New ICU numbers are up but again that is expected with more hospitalisations, but they are not up so much that hospitals/regions cant handle it.

So not sure how to describe the situation because yes it sounds bad in the English speaking (and Danish speaking) press, but the reality on the ground is very different depending on what region you are in. Daily life with masks goes on, people are on the beaches and seem to mostly be complying to the rules. But then there are those that dont and they are the problem. Some claim they are Madrididiots, other claim they are British, and others claim they are wealthy tourists who avoid travel bans because of private jets.. not sure which is true or not. Considering that a Belgian prince got into Spain during lock down to get infected (or infect others), then Mr Rich Guy from high infected countries could do the same outside lock down.
 
PeteEU said:
This smells more like a political excuse than an actual method to combat the spread of the virus. Considering that Galicia is one of the regions with the fewest cases, then I suspect it is more political opportunism to finally get rid of smoking public places.
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Totally agree!
 
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