Live News From Spain As It Happens

COMPULSORY masks for all children aged six and over – including on school buses – and temperatures taken upon entry every morning are some of the moves agreed as part of Spain's back-to-class strategy.

The new term begins at different times in different regions, but pupils will start filtering back into the classroom from Friday, September 4.

Education minister Isabel Celaá, health minister Salvador Illa and territorial policy and public functions minister Carolina Darias met with representatives from all 17 of Spain's autonomously-governed regions, plus those of the two city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern Moroccan coast.

They all managed to agree on 29 specific measures and five recommendations to be adopted ahead of the new academic year in September, except the Basque Country, which abstained when they were voted upon.

Children attending class in person is a priority, at least up to second year of high school (aged 12 and 13), since in the event of further outbreaks that make it advisable to stay at home, it is considered that teens aged 14 to 18 and university students would have the maturity and self-discipline to follow lessons remotely from home – also, above age 14, they do not need to have a parent at home with them during the day if this is not possible due to adult working hours.

Distances of at least 1.5 metres between children, and between kids and teachers, must be kept as far as is practical, and emphasis should be placed on ensuring children wash their hands regularly.

Rooms should be kept ventilated as much as possible and cleaned and disinfected stringently.

If three people – pupils or teachers – at any school become infected, this will be treated as an 'outbreak' and the school temporarily shut, although two or fewer will only affect specific class groups.

Shutting an entire school will be a 'last resort' to prevent uncontrolled contagion.

Where this happens, or a single class group has to close down, all pupils in that group or in the school, and all teachers who have been in contact with them, will be PCR-tested and ordered to quarantine for at least 14 days.

School lunches will still be served, although children will be expected to sit at least 1.5 metres apart.

No specific instructions have been issued for class sizes, but regional governments have taken on more teachers this year to enable them to cut group numbers, and it is recommended that no more than 15 to 20 children form part of each class.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

WITH working from home on the rise across the modern world and given a major boost by the pandemic, the need to live close to the office is rapidly reducing – and has already been floated as a possible solution to stemming the exodus of childbearing-age inhabitants in Spain's most remote rural parts.

Based upon the notion that, as long as an office employee has access to internet and a computer, he or she can work anywhere in the world, UK-based property insurer CIA Landlord carried out a survey to see which European cities Brits would choose to live in if they could carry on with their jobs from home.

The answers were based upon various criteria, but these included being able to make their money go further and increase their savings if they were still earning in pounds sterling.

And Madrid has come out top.

Its points in favour cover regular, cheap flights to and from various destinations in the UK, a wide range of restaurants and bars with great food at a low cost, and plenty to do off duty including arts and entertainment, culture, shopping and tourism.

The only downside to Madrid, among those surveyed, was the cost of rent – the average tenant in Spain's capital pays around €990 a month, a price that can drop to a third or even less out in the provinces, even in densely-populated, lively coastal areas.

Buying property in Madrid or anywhere in Spain continues to be a much cheaper option than renting, and although tenancies are on the increase, the country has a far greater culture of owner-occupancy than the European average, with the most recent figures showing that well above 80% of Spanish homes are lived in by people who either own them outright or have a mortgage on them.

This said, the CIA Landlord study found that for British home-workers living in London, the cost of renting in Madrid did not seem particularly high to them and even represented a significant saving.

If cost of living was the only consideration, the outright winner would have been the Albanian capital of Tirana, where the average monthly rental is £270 (about €325) and a one-way public transport ticket is about £0.30 (€0.36), but other criteria were also perceived as important and Tirana ended up fourth on the list.

This said, quality, good-sized rentals in large, bustling towns, coastal hotspots and provincial capital cities in Spain – let alone those in more remote areas – are easy to find for far less than the Tirana average; see over 1,000 properties for let between €100 and €500 a month here.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HOTEL occupation has been better than expected across Spain for July, thanks to Spaniards opting to take their holidays in their home country rather than travelling abroad.

And despite the UK's two-week quarantine requirements for travellers from Spain, including returning holidaymakers, and restrictions imposed by other European nations, a total of 15.2% hotel guests in July were from Britain and 25.1% were from Germany.

Whilst this is still considerably lower than in a 'normal' year, it shows the desire to get to Spain in summer remains widespread in northern Europe and bodes well for future seasons when the pandemic is finally under control and everyone free to spend time abroad again.

Although hotel guests coming from France, The Netherlands and Belgium fell drastically, still between two and three in 10 of the usual numbers opted to spend their holidays in Spain.

These figures do not count expatriates in Spain originally from these countries, but refer exclusively to those who have journeyed directly from them and may include residents in them of different nationalities altogether.

Around 50% of the usual numbers of residents in Spain – Spaniards and other nationalities – occupied hotel rooms in July, or a total of 7.4 million in total.

Holidaymakers from abroad staying in Spanish hotels totalled 4.1 million.

This overall figure of 11.5 million in the month of July represented a fall of 73.4% across the board based upon numbers from last year, but is still equivalent to a quarter of the population of Spain and shows that fears of 'zero tourism' in summer 2020 are not entirely founded.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN has just arranged to buy its first Covid-19 vaccines as part of a European Union-wide scheme.

Scientists at Oxford University (UK) are at the clinical trials stage of the vaccine they are developing for the pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca, and which is said to be farther ahead than most other research projects in the same area.

According to the European Commission, purchase and distribution of the Oxford vaccine will be spread out 'fairly' across the bloc, based upon the population size of each country and their epidemiological data.

Spain is said to have bought 30 million doses of the vaccine 'off-plan', meaning there will be enough for two-thirds of the population.

The European Commission's negotiating committee is, however, still in talks with other pharmaceutical companies which are developing alternative vaccines, in order to ensure that all the EU's inoculation needs – and those of third countries – can be met.

Spain's health ministry says two of these negotiations are 'at a very advanced stage now' and that the companies involved are due to present an 'official proposal very shortly'.

This is as a result of Spain's having joined the European Vaccine Strategy in July – a scheme which aims to establish a unique continent-wide position that guarantees universal and fair access to the vaccine to protect the bulk of the population.

Astrazeneca is currently testing the Oxford vaccine on patients worldwide for safety and efficiency, involving around 10,000 volunteers.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

WHEN you're based in a land-locked province, or your nearest beach is too packed, or you just want to explore the countryside, Spain is replete with natural 'swimming pools' which, at this time of year, are not just a godsend, but completely necessary. At a time when temperatures soar into the mid-30s and feel higher still, having a large body of water handy to chuck yourself in is sheer bliss.

Some of Spain's lakes, ponds, lagoons and rivers are totally natural, whilst others have been landscaped to give them a 'beachy' appearance, or just to make life easier for bathers – with steps, terraces, and sectioned-off areas for safety.

There's at least one in every province, but here are some of the nation's favourites.

Castilla y León

Head for the Sierra de Gredos mountain range in the province of Ávila, where you'll find numerous natural 'swimming pools' between the Los Caballeros lagoon and the river Tormes.

Also in the province of Ávila, the Arenas de San Pedro is a parkland-cum-inland beach, peaceful and green and perfect for a dip.

Or in the province of Burgos – after stopping at the city of the same name to see what is probably the world's most stunningly-beautiful cathedral – midway between the villages of Pedrosa de Tobalina and La Orden you'll find the 12-metre (39-foot) waterfalls named after the first of these (first picture, from Flickr), which supply a huge and beautiful pool of clean water perfect for summer bathing.

In the heart of a woodland, the rocky river path running through mossy banks offers plenty of shade as well as shallow water for paddling in the river Cambrones, in the province of Segovia – the Calderas, or pools, most popular with locals and visitors are the Guindo, Enmedio and La Negra.

Castilla-La Mancha

Letur, in the province of Albacete – not far to travel if you're on the Costa Blanca or in Murcia – is a small, man-made pool complete with steps and surrounded by trees, purpose-built for bathing, so you know it's going to be completely safe.

For a more 'countryside' feel, the thick grassland surrounding the Ruidera lagoons in the province of Ciudad Real, fed by small waterfalls, comes highly recommended, whilst the rocky Las Chorreras in the province of Cuenca, with its crystal-blue-grey waters, reminds one of the cave-pools, or cenotes, in eastern México.

In the same province, the Hoces de Cabriel, in and around the villages of Enguídanos, Villora and Minglanilla are a UNESCO bio-reserve and a huge, natural complex of pools of different sizes and depths, ranging from knee-deep to several metres, turquoise with a sandy floor and shrouded in mountain landscape with waterfalls – in fact, they look more like a scene from the tropics than from centre-eastern Spain.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ALTHOUGH it is generally recommended that we avoid gatherings of family and friends or house parties during the pandemic, the General Nursing Council has issued some safety guidelines for those who really feel they cannot avoid doing so.

Given that nearly half the recent outbreaks of Covid-19 in Spain have been through mass meetings of friends and relatives, the focus has been on holding these as safely as possible – since banning them altogether would only be feasible through another lockdown, which the country wants to avoid entirely if it can.

“We know everyone's desire to hug each other and make up for lost time is enormous, but right now, we can't afford to undo all our hard work,” stresses chairman of the General Nursing Council, Florentino Pérez Raya.

Before the meeting

Numbers should be kept as low as is socially possible. If your friends have held a party and you've just found out it went on without you, try not to feel rejected; it's likely that next time they do, you'll be first in the queue.

If it's you who's organising a gathering, work out how many people can fit in your house or at your dining table without having to get closer than 1.5 metres (about five feet) to anyone they do not live with.

Ideally, use an outside space, but if you don't have one, make sure the room you use is well-ventilated.

Set a 'chucking out time' to limit how long you're in each others' company, tell everyone when the curfew is, and stick to it.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A HOUSE where iconic poet and playwright Federico García Lorca spent his summer holidays is on sale for €3 million.

Owned by Lorca's nieces, the villa in Nerja (Málaga province) near the Balcón de Europa, is over 100 years old but 'in excellent condition' and 'maintains its original features, antiques, history, and the atmosphere of its time', according to details of the property.

It includes a 1,400-square-metre (about a third of an acre) allotment, is a two-storey building and is around 170 square metres on each floor.

With five bedrooms and five bathrooms, Lorca's summer house looks over the Balcón de Europa on one side and over the cliffs to the Maro-Cerro Gordo hillside on the other.

The author of now world-famous plays such as Bodas de Sangre ('Blood Wedding') and La Casa de Bernarda Alba ('The House of Bernarda Alba') spent his summer holidays at the Nerja property in the 1920s and early 1930s – in fact, right up until he was murdered by dictator General Franco's military exactly 84 years ago today (August 18) in 1936, the year the Civil War broke out.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE BEST beer in the world is Spanish – it's official.

This year's World Beer Challenge Awards have been given out and, although they will not be published until September, the Galicia-based brewery Hijos de Rivera has already offered a spoiler.

Their own 1906 brand – the premium label of the company Estrella Galicia – has swept the board, netting the maximum of 100 points and gold medals for three different versions.

The 1906 Special Reserve, the 1906 Red Vintage, and the black lager 1906 Black Coupage all achieved the highest number of points available and went home with gold medals, commemorative high-resolution labels for their bottles, and will get a full profile on the World Beer Awards site.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE WORLD'S biggest – and probably only – salad fight was supposed to be celebrating its 75^th anniversary in 2020, but like practically all fiestas this year, has been called off due to the pandemic.

Not entirely, though: Buñol town council is calling for fans of the festival all over the planet to take part in the #TomatinaChallenge – videoing themselves being hit by ripe tomatoes or hurling tomato juice over themselves, uploading the footage on social media, and emailing it to prensa@latomatina.info.

All entries will be placed into a metaphorical hat and the first 10 drawn out will earn their filmers two tickets each for next year's Tomatina, and 10 commemorative mugs.

Safety and avoiding destruction of other people's, or public, property is, obviously, paramount: If you take videos of yourself chucking tomatoes at people on the street, you'll probably be fined, and so you should be; mask-wearing, social distancing and stringent hygiene measures mean it is more crucial than ever to avoid pulling a Tomatina-style stunt in public.

But a tomatoey version of the 'ice-bucket challenge' on your own terrace or garden – as long as you're the one responsible for cleaning it up afterwards – could work instead.

It does not have to be messy, though, say local authorities: Dressing up the kids in tomato costumes, filming your tomato plants or tomato-based lunch might also fit the bill.

Videos should be horizontal, or landscape, rather than vertical or portrait, since they need to be uniform – the council wants to put them all together to make a full-length, commemorative 75^th anniversary 'documentary'.

Buñol, a town of approximately 11,000 inhabitants around 20 kilometres west of Valencia off the A-3 Madrid motorway, is famous on every continent for its mucky festival, which is believed to have started after a group of youths at the weekly fruit-and-veg market became bored and started hurling tomatoes at each other.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CARRYING hand-sanitiser around with you and groping for it in your handbag whenever you need it can be cumbersome, but there's an easier way: Cleands, a biodegradable, hypoallergenic wristband filled with alcohol gel that you just press once.

The capsule inside is easily refilled, and each press gives exactly the right dose for an adult pair of hands, dispensing it onto your hands without squirting it everywhere, and then all you need to do is rub it in for 15 seconds.

A full capsule carries enough hand-sanitiser for up to 25 'cleans'.

Similar in appearance to a basic Swatch watch and coming in several colours – black, white, yellow and pastel shades of blue, pink and grey – Cleands wristbands are the brainchild of a group of young adults in Spain who intend to donate part of the proceeds from each sale to various charities battling the Covid-19 pandemic.

The dispenser valve is one-way only, so the alcohol gel does not get 'sucked' back in, and is very accurately-dosed to avoid waste.

All the wearer has to do is remember to refill it – using hand-sanitiser comprising at least 70% to 90% alcohol and with an anti-virus effect, available from pharmacies or supermarkets.

When they eventually get worn out and need to be replaced, they will not clog up landfill sites, as they are completely biodegradable, meaning they break down and totally disappear over time.

Each wristband costs just €13.75, and you can even buy Cleands-branded anti-virus hand-sanitiser to refill it, at €7 for 250ml or €9 for 400ml, with added aloe vera to keep skin soft, protected and moisturised.

The Cleands team is attempting to roll them out to as many pharmacies nationwide as possible, although they are not yet widely available outside of large towns or cities.

Eventually, they hope to have them on sale in almost every chemist's nationwide.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PROBABLY one of Spain's biggest and longest-running culinary debates, the issue of whether tortilla, or egg-and-potato omelette, should have onions in it or not has caused yet another storm on Twitter – this time after Michelin-starred chef Dabiz Muñoz gave his official view.

An apparently simple, but highly effective and nutritious go-to dish, tortilla is simply made with diced or finely-chopped boiled potatoes, eggs, a bit of salt and, frequently, with onions flash-fried so they are transparent but not brown or crispy, as they should not be any chewier than the potato part, and should be cut up into very small pieces.

The general consensus is that tortillas should be moist – more egg than potato, and with the yolk still partly liquid inside, although spongey and solid on the outside.

And the nation is more divided over whether or not onions should be used than they are when it comes to general election time – in fact, it is probably the Spanish answer to the highly-polarised British sentiments about Marmite.

TV chefs Alberto Chicote and Karlos Arguiñano have already said they prefer it with onion.

But Dabiz Muñoz – who runs the three-starred Madrid-based eatery DiverXo and whose girlfriend is presenter Cristina Pedroche, famous for her risqué dresses when reporting live on the New Year chimes from the capital's Puerta del Sol square – has left few Twitter users indifferent with his own advocation of onionless tortilla.

When answering the 64-million-peseta question posed once again, this time by Papel, the magazine supplement in national daily broadsheet El Mundo, Muñoz said simply: “Always without onion, obviously.”

The original post by Papel read: “Forget about the 'with or without onion' debate – this Tuesday we're going to look into another real Spanish culinary mystery: Where does potato tortilla come from?”

It showcased a feature illustrated with multiple pictures by British photographer Joseph Fox, 'a lover of Spanish bars'.

Muñoz's answer earned him a flood of criticism – although most of it was tongue in cheek.

Some joked that his cooking tortilla without onion should automatically lead to the loss of two of DiverXo's Michelin stars, whilst others said, in jest, “My hero has fallen. And I can normally forgive you for anything.”

Another said: “There are two types of potato tortilla: The authentic version, and the incomplete one which doesn't have onion in it.”

Luckily for those who have strong opinions either way – and if you don't, you're probably not Spanish, rather like the way it's universally acknowledged that every Brit either loves or hates Marmite but no true patriot is anywhere in between – most supermarkets sell both versions, and some with other, less-contested ingredients.

Mercadona's 'with onions' type has red lettering on its wrapping and reads, con cebolla (see above photograph) – and at the beginning of lockdown when consumers started panic-buying unnecessarily, was the first type to sell out – and the 'without onions' version does not make any reference to these vegetables, but simply says tortilla de patata in green letters.

The store also sells one with chorizo sausage, an ingredient which, as UK celebrity chef Jamie Oliver found out to his cost, never, ever goes into paella.

Other supermarkets sell tortilla with spinach in it – Mas y Mas, in the Comunidad Valenciana, is one of these, and also retails 'burger-sized' ones.

Most bars offering snacks will sell you a slice on a saucer, and it is actually fairly common to order tortilla sandwich, with wedges served inside baguette halves.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THIS year's TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards are in – and Spain features on almost every list.

Users of the tourism planning platform vote annually in various categories on cities, attractions, beaches, countries, hotels, airlines and other features of worldwide holidays, and the top 25 are highlighted on the site.

Spain's best bits – not all of them, of course, just a tiny handful – appear year after year, and it is frequently one of the most-featured countries in each of the top 25 lists.

In 'Trending Destinations', the Canarian island of Fuerteventura (picture five, by the island tourist board) comes 16^th, with recommended attractions mentioned including Sotavento beach, Cofete beach, the Corralejo nature reserve, the Tefia eco-museum, the annual pre-Lent Carnival, Baku water park, and the quaint, pretty town of Betancuria.

It comes ahead of México DF at number 17; Chiang Mai in Thailand; Fes in Morocco; the Hungarian capital of Budapest; Zanzibar Island in Tanzania; Cartagena de Indias in Colombia; Edinburgh in Scotland, UK; Cebu Island in the Philippines, and, at number 25, the Russian capital of Moscow.

In 'Popular Destinations', the Balearic island of Mallorca comes eighth – recommendations include Palma cathedral, Alcúdia old town, Muro beach, Marineland sealife park, the ancient Palma-to-Sóller train, and also refers to famous islanders including artist Joan Miró and composer Frédéric Chopin who spent a winter there with French novelist George Sands – and Barcelona is ninth, with attractions listed as the Bellesguard Tower, the Sagrada Família Cathedral, the Amatller House, the Ramblas with its 'flamboyant street performers', and the colourful Güell Park (second photograph).

The list is, predictably, topped by London and Paris, followed by Crete (Greece), Bali (Indonesia), Rome, Phuket island (Thailand) and Sicily (Italy), although Mallorca and Barcelona have beaten – in descending order – Istanbul (Turkey), Goa (India), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), the Dominican Republic, Bangkok (Thailand), Hanoi (Vietnam), Prague (Czech Republic), Hoi An (Vietnam), Rhodes (Greece), Cuba, Siem Reap (Cambodia), Marrakech (Morocco), Lisbon (Portugal), Tokyo and Kyoto (Japan), and New York at number 25.

In 'Experiences' – which covers full-day tours, frequently off the beaten track and often with unconventional elements to them – Spain comes in at number 12 with an excursion to the spectacular monastery in Montserrat (first picture, by Gyrofrog on Wikimedia Commons), Barcelona province, including lunch and gourmet wine-tasting.

Ahead of the Montserrat tour is a red-dune camel safari in the United Arab Emirates, Tuscan cooking classes in Florence, an Amsterdam canal cruise, Berlin walking tour, Northern Ireland circuit tour, Chicago river cruise, day trip by camel to the Atlas Mountains in southern Morocco, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tour in New York, a day trip to the Blue Mountains from Sydney, sea-kayaking and snorkelling in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and an Ancient Rome and Colisseum underground tour.

The Montserrat trip came ahead of a Lisbon walking tour, a Harry Potter 'London for Muggles' tour, a Douro Valley cruise with lunch and wine-tasting in northern Portugal, a Niagara Falls boat trip, a Highlands, Glencoe and Loch Ness tour in Scotland, a traditional village sightseeing trip in Bali, a Prague walking tour with a Vltava river cruise, an Ubud circuit tour in Indonesia, an Auschwitz-Birkenau and Wieliczka salt-mine trip, a Great Ocean Road eco-trip from Melbourne, a Chernobyl and Prypiat excursion in Ukraine, a Dachau memorial site rail trip, and a Teotihuacan tour with an archaeologist and tequila-tasting in México DF.

For the 'Beaches' award, most of those on the list were not traditional package-tour magnets – which included the ones chosen for Spain, Formentera's Ses Illetes in the Balearic Islands, and San Sebastián's La Concha (third photograph), in the Basque Country, at 14 and 15 respectively.

They came ahead of Florida's St Pete beach; the Playa Norte on México's Isla Mujeres; Maho Bay in St John, Virgin Islands; Bavaro beach in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Woolacombe beach in Devon, UK; Elafonissi beach in Chania, Crete (Greece); Whitehaven beach on Whitsunday Island, Queensland, Australia; Cala Mariolu in Baunei, Sardinia, Italy; Balos Lagoon in Kissamos, Crete; and the Black Sand beach in Vik, Iceland.

Most of those ranked above Spain were in Brazil and the Caribbean, as well as one each in Florida and India, but the only European beaches ahead of the two in Spain were Italy's Spiaggia dei Conigli, off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa (4), Kleftiko beach on the Greek island of Milos (10), and Luskentyre on the Scottish Outer Hebridean island of Harris, UK (13).

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANISH celebrity chef José Andrés has travelled to Beirut to hand out food parcels following the devastating explosion which has left at least 150 dead and 5,000 injured.

Andrés, originally from Asturias, has lived in the USA for over 25 years and runs the ThinkFoodGroup restaurant chain, which famously pulled out of a deal to open an eatery in a planned Trump Towers hotel in Washington DC in protest over the then presidential candidate's disparaging comments about Latin American migrants.

As well as his successful dining enterprise, Andrés runs the charity World Central Kitchen, which gave out free sandwiches and soup last January to long-unpaid civil servants during Trump's shutdown and provided meals for evacuees in the Bahamas during Hurricane Dorian.

Andrés, additionally, offered a job to the dinner lady who was sacked for letting a schoolboy have a free US$8 lunch because his parents could not afford to pay.

Once again, the chef has come up trumps for an international disaster, having just landed in the Lebanese capital and, in one day, distributed 6,600 sandwiches in 30 different points in the city.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

OLIVE trees of thousands of years old, still with leaves and occasionally even with olives are a regular feature across Spain, often being much-loved and officially-protected local 'monuments' – and, in the Canary Islands, the dragontree (Dracaena Draco), a species native to this part of the Atlantic, can often live for centuries, or millennia.

The above photograph shows an olive tree of at least a thousand years old, and possibly several thousand – nobody is quite sure – in Simat de la Valldigna (northern Valencia province), just outside the iconic late-13th-century Santa María de la Valldigna monastery, which attracts local visitors year-round.

How and why certain species of tree live so long has always been a mystery to the layperson, although recently-published studies by Dr Sergi Munné of Barcelona University's Faculty of Biology and its Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) gives us some idea.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PRESIDENT Pedro Sánchez has shelved any potential tax rises until after Spain has recovered financially from the Covid-19 pandemic and economic growth has returned to levels prior to the health crisis.

“That's when we'll have the guarantees and the context we need to approach the necessary structural reforms,” the socialist leader said.

Spain is not alone in seeing its GDP plummet this year – by a whopping 18.5% so far – and it is logical this would be the case, given that the country, like most of the world, was in full lockdown from March to the end of May and all bar essential businesses forced to close their doors unless their staff could work from home.

Now, though, it appears unlikely a blanket national shutdown would happen again: Further outbreaks of Covid-19 are localised, testing and contact-tracing is taking place much more quickly, and cases are swiftly contained, meaning any lockdown would only be applied in specific towns on a temporary basis.

As a result of the State of Alarm being declared over at the end of June, employment went up in July – with 161,217 workers now back 'in the system' – although this is still a long way from mopping up the 750,000 jobs which disappeared temporarily or permanently over lockdown.

Temporary lay-offs, or 'furloughs', are already officially extended until the end of September, but the government intends to stretch them out even further in light of a rise in cases nationwide.

Pedro Sánchez has strongly hinted, though, that tax rises would not apply across the board and would be unlikely to hit the average worker or those on low incomes.

He says tax changes need to be applied 'with justice' given that 'a huge amount of people' believe they actually pay more in taxes than others who are much wealthier.

“We need a more sustainable and stable taxation structure over a longer term,” he argues.

But not just now – although the country is facing 'enormous' deficits and public debts, the country's first priority is to 'maintain companies and workers' during the pandemic.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

IN A BID to attract tourists this summer, the Canary Island government has taken out a multi-billion insurance policy to cover holidaymakers' expenses if they contract Covid-19 whilst visiting.

Applicable to foreigners on short stays in the islands and also to Spaniards and Spanish residents travelling there on a staycation – even those living in the same region - the travel assistance policy, underwritten by AXA España, has a sum insured of €450,000 which pays for all medical care and testing costs, repatriation, and necessary extension of stay for quarantine requirements for any tourist who tests positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

An exclusion applies to any case of Covid-19 known about by the holidaymaker before setting off for the Canary Islands, but there is no policy excess.

It comes into force for all visitors this week, and is valid up to and including December 31 this year.

Regional minister for tourism Yaiza Castilla says the cover is 'yet another step' in the Canaries' 'commitment to reinforcing and increasing safety and peace of mind' among tourists heading for the islands this summer.

She hopes it will also serve to 'regain the confidence of British holidaymakers', whose numbers have fallen almost to nothing nationwide thanks to the UK government's decision to impose a fortnight's quarantine on all travellers returning from Spain, even resident Britons coming back from their summer beach break.

THE GOALKEEPER who helped Spain to win two UEFA Euro titles consecutively and its first-ever World Cup in the middle has officially announced his retirement from play, 15 months after collapsing during training with a heart attack.

Iker Casillas, 39, has been on the front line of football for 21 years and was team captain when Spain won the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa – a national team he first joined 20 years ago.

Until his heart attack and stent operation in May 2019, Iker was playing for FC Oporto, where he transferred to in 2015 after a major dispute with Real Madrid chairman Florentino Pérez.

He retired from the international team in 2016, but having gone from a legend with Real Madrid to a much-loved and hugely-acclaimed player in Oporto, he is still considered one of the world's best goalkeepers in history.

After Portuguese doctors signed him off and strongly advised him not to go back on the pitch for the foreseeable future, Iker did not entirely lose hope of being able to play at top level again one day, but in the meantime, worked for Oporto on the technical side and then decided to stand for elections for the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

He was up against existing chairman Luis Rubiales – whose decisions during the last World Cup have been heavily criticised – but in the end, Iker withdrew his candidacy as he felt time was against him and he would not be able to prepare for the elections so soon.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MASK which deactivates the SARS-CoV-2 virus and developed in Portugal is now on sale across Spain in Eroski supermarkets.

The MOxAdTech is the first mask made of textile fabric which stops the virus in its tracks when it comes into contact with it, and passed all the tests carried out on it at the João Lobo Antunes Molecular Medicine Institute (iMM) in Lisbon, which created it along with the company Sonae Fashion, the CITEVE Technology Centre, the fashion retailer MO, the textile manufacturers Adalberto, and Minho University.

Supermarket chain Eroski says it is now on the shelves for the bargain price of €9.95.

“It is highly-efficient, comfortable, waterproof, and has an innovative built-in top layer which neutralises the SARS-CoV-2 virus when it enters in contact with the material,” Eroski says.

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A MOBILE phone contact-tracing application designed by Spain's government is about to become available to the public on a voluntary basis, having passed its first phase of tests.

'Radar COVID' is capable of tracing twice as many contacts as manual tracers – operated by human staff – reaching on average 6.4 close contacts per confirmed Coronavirus case, compared with the present 3.5.

After testing, it was given a score of 8.2 out of 10, and is expected to be released shortly to regional governments and health authorities.

Using Bluetooth, the App uses anonymous identifiers emitted by mobile phones and, if two handsets have been close to each other for a period of at least 15 minutes at two metres' distance or less, both will automatically 'collect' the other's anonymous identifier.

The information does not allow anyone to trace or identify each other through having the App on their phones, but if anyone tests positive for Covid-19, they can then give their consent to the data obtained being used by the health service.

Any mobile phones which have been in close proximity to one used by a person testing positive will flag up an alert of 'possible contagion risk' and include instructions on how to proceed.

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CANARY Island president Ángel Víctor Torres says he is 'quietly confident' the UK will lift its quarantine restrictions soon – for this region, at least.

Recently, the British government announced that anyone travelling from Spain, irrespective of nationality and including returning holidaymakers resident in the UK, would be forced to self-isolate for 14 days, a decision that has effectively put paid to anyone from the country taking their summer holidays in Spain.

Even though other countries have not imposed restrictions – Belgium has advised against travel to certain parts of the north only, and Germany is considering free PCR tests for everyone who arrives from abroad, including German residents coming back from holiday – the British market is one of the largest for Spain's most popular summer destinations, meaning its loss could create a significant financial impact on the tourism industry.

Holiday-home owners from Britain who had been planning to spend the entire summer in Spain have said, in some cases, that they intend to do so anyway, since by the time they are ready to return to the UK, the quarantine requirement may have been lifted and, in the case of those who are retired or do not need to work, two weeks stuck indoors alone are a small sacrifice for being able to enjoy a sunshine break for several months.

Resident Spaniards may well be the ones to save the summer this year – many intend to take a holiday as planned, but due to the pandemic, are reluctant to go abroad, so are tending to opt for national destinations instead.

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BANKS, shops and public transport, as well as healthcare, education facilities and a postal delivery service are 'key' to stemming Spain's rural exodus, says a recently-released report.

According to sociologists Luis Camarero, of Spain's 'open university', the UNED, and Jesús Oliva of Navarra Public University, the remote country villages whose populations are ageing and shrinking have been thrust sharply into the spotlight after lockdown drew attention to their local needs.

The least-densely populated areas of Spain are stuck in a type of 'Catch 22' situation: Few services or job opportunities are in place for younger adults, because there are not enough of them to warrant these; but the lack of these services and opportunities means younger adults tend to leave for cities and coasts as soon as they finish school.

As a result, few or no children are born, and as the older residents gradually die out, the headcount dwindles to nothing – in fact, villages that are now completely empty can be found in some of Spain's more rural regions.

The National Institute of Statistics (INE) said in 2019 that 53% of Spain has fewer than 12 inhabitants per square kilometre – to put that into perspective, even a small town on the coast has a typical population density of around 400 to 600 per square kilometre – and 6,000 Spanish villages have seen their headcount fall in the last 10 years.

Eight in 10 villages in 14 of Spain's 50 provinces are at risk of becoming completely empty in a generation or two – and yet, the collective population of all of these together would fill a city the size of Madrid several times over.

The UNED and Navarra University report reveals that the bank and supermarket most frequently found – and, indeed, the most prolific private-sector companies altogether – in villages of 10,000 inhabitants or fewer are CaixaBank and Día.

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AROUND a decade ago, a law was brought into force setting minimum and maximum air-conditioning temperatures year-round – before then, it was fairly common, when popping out on a day when it was over 40ºC in the shade, to take a thick cardigan with you to put on in shops and bars.

In some countries, 'air-con wars' can be among the biggest sources of office conflict – and it has, in fact, caused friction in Alicante city hall this week, when Podemos councillor Vanesa Romero said the too-cold temperature set was 'an example of everyday sexism'.

She may have a point, however, despite some of the male councillors on right-wing parties mocking her: Several scientific studies, including research published by the professional journal Nature, have proven that product design has historically had a male bias, and air-conditioning is no exception – the report reveals how this godsend gadget was originally developed in the 1960s, a time when women even throughout the western world were considered inferior, and was based upon temperatures at which a man aged on average 40 and weighing 70 kilos (about 11^st 4lb) felt comfortable indoors.

Women's body temperatures are habitually lower, although tend to rise around the time of the menopause, when even men could be buttoning up their jackets as women strip off and fan themselves – although even then, finding a balance that meets with ethical requirements of 'thermal equality' can be difficult.

Several Spanish organisations have given their views – not just on what is comfortable, but what is healthy.

One of these is the leading consumer affairs group, the OCU, which says air-con temperatures should be approximately 5ºC lower than those outside.

This does not mean setting your air-conditioning to 35ºC when it's 40ºC outside, of course. When it's extremely hot and humid – like at the moment, with Spain officially going through what the Met office defines as a heatwave – an indoor temperature of between 24ºC and 26ºC is low enough to keep cool without racking up a huge electricity bill.

Whilst this type of temperature would leave most people sweating profusely in winter, the reason for the apparently high figure is not to create too much of a contrast with the heat outside, since rapid and constant air temperature changes can cause minor illnesses.

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