Spanish PM’S wife tests positive for virus
MADRID: The wife of Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, his office said late Saturday, just hours after he announced a near-total lockdown nationwide.
Both Begona Gomez and her husband were well, and were at their official residence following the new measures introduced by the health authorities, said a government statement.
Spain put its 47 million inhabitants under partial lockdown on Saturday as part of a 15-day state of emergency to combat the coronavirus epidemic in Europe’s second worst-affected country by the disease after Italy.
“We will (eventually) return to the routine of our jobs and again visit our friends and loved ones,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a nationally televised address.
“Until that time comes, let’s not waste energies that are essential now. Let’s not lose our way,” he said, urging all to stay home.
Spain has had 193 deaths from the virus and 6,250 cases so far, public broadcaster TVE said on Sunday.
FRANCE GOES TO POLLS DESPITE LOCKDOWN France voted in municipal elections on Sunday that risk a low turnout as the mounting coronavirus infection toll saw the government indefinitely close bars, restaurants and schools.
By noon, turnout was at 18% nationally, down from 23% in local elections in 2014.
Anti-infection precautions were in place at the country’s 35,000-odd voting stations, with bottles of hand sanitiser at the entrance, a personal distance of about one metre marked with tape on the floor, and booths positioned in such a way that voters can avoid touching the privacy curtain.
Several voters turned out sporting surgical masks and clutched their own bottles of sanitising gel in one of the countries hardest-hit by the virus. France has had some 4,500 infections and 91 deaths.
President Emmanuel Macron, for whom the two-round election is a crucial midterm test, has insisted it goes ahead to assure democratic continuity.