Madrid Inches To Phase “0.5” As Sanchez Seeks One Month Extention.

Madrid Stays In Phase 0 as Sanchez seeks Final Extention For A Month  – But light at the end of the tunnel.

Madrid´s second application to move to the Phase 1 of the de-escalation plan has been denied by the central government, however there will be some loosening of measures that have been dubbed Phase 0.5.

The measures will allow some small businesses to open without an appointment but not terrazas or pavement cafes.

There has been increasing public agitation with a demonstration seen in the up market neighbourhood of Salamanca on Saturday calling for the resignation of the prime minister.

Isabel Diaz Ayuso, the regional Partido Popular head joined the fray warning of “ social unrest” if the lockdown were to continue for much longer and tweeted her frustration saying “Madrid meets all the criteria – it has increased its bed capacity and testing” and added that the economic fallout of the prolonged Phase 0  claiming the loss of 18,000 jobs a week in the region.

In his weekly update from Moncloa the Prime Minister announced on Saturday that he would be seeking an additional – and final extention to the State of Emergency – for a month.

Previously he had been seeking Parliamentary approval for 2 week extentions. This has becoming increasingly difficult for the minority coalition government to get through the Congreso.

As of today there have been 276,505 cases registered in Spain of which 27,563 have died and 192,253 recovered.

Madrid´s share of  cases has fallen drastically from the beginning of the lockdown in March and is presently 17% of all registered cases and 9% of deaths. The region has 14% of the Spanish population.

In the last 24 hours 5 Communidades have registered zero fatalities whilst others have now moved to Phase 1 and are preparing for the move to Phase 2 of the return to the ” new normality” announced by Pedro Sanchez.