Speaking to reporters after the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Sanchez stressed: “We are in the most serious situation in the past half century.” By order of emergency, all regions, except the Canary Islands, will impose a curfew from 23:00 the night before to 6 o’clock the next morning. Regional governments will be allowed to impose stricter restrictions on mobility, corporate activity, and many other activities.
The emergency order will need to be approved by the Spanish parliament to last more than 15 days. Prime Minister Sanchez asked the Spanish Parliament to extend this emergency measure until May 9.
The decision was made after many localities in Spain called on the government to empower them to impose a curfew to prevent the COVID-19 epidemic. On October 21, Spain became the first country in the European Union to record more than 1 million cases of COVID-19. Currently, this country is one of the Western European countries with the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of over 1.1 cases, of which more than 34,700 people do not survive.
This is the second time this year that Spain has to declare a national emergency in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. On March 14, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had to use this measure when the COVID-19 outbreak broke out in the first wave of infections, including banning people from leaving home except for work, medical examination, buy medicine or buy necessities. The emergency order was later renewed six times and lifted on June 21.