‘Green light! Ants!’: Spain’s kids get freedom from lockdown
‘It was as if we had rediscovered the street’
After six weeks cooped up with 3-year-old twins, mother Susana Sabaté was finally able to release her energy-filled boys onto Spain’s sunny streets.
Spain’s government lifted a home confinement rule for children under 14 years old after 44 days on Sunday, ending one of the most restrictive measures of its national lockdown to rein in a coronavirus outbreak that has claimed over 22,000 lives in the European country. Even Italy, with more deaths than Spain, has not kept its youngsters completely secluded.
“This is wonderful! I can’t believe it has been six weeks,” the 44-year-old Sabaté said in Barcelona. “My boys are very active. Today when they saw the front door and we gave them their scooters, they were thrilled.”
Sabaté’s sons wore child-size face masks as they went out. She said they were used to seeing both their parents wear them when they went out, so she believed that made it easier to convince them to put them on. “We will see how long they last!” she said. Gustavo Tapia, Sabaté husband, said that taking sons Tomás and Zacarías for a stroll in the neighborhood was a joy.
“It was as if we had rediscovered the street,” Tapia said. “They were really excited to see things that they had grown accustomed to seeing before. For example, when they saw a streetlight they started shouting ‘Green!
Green!’ They also loved seeing ants and other insects.”
Spain’s 5.8 million children under 14 years old are now allowed to take walks once a day, accompanied by a parent for up to one hour and within a kilometer of home. Many children took out their bikes and scooters.
Kids can take one toy with them, but they are not to play with other children. They can accompany a parent on shopping outings for food, medicine or a newspaper. Parks remain closed in Barcelona and Madrid. Authorities recommend that both parents and children wash their hands before and after outings.
Authorities had resisted calls from some parents to let children outside until now, citing concerns that they could be a source of contagion even though children appear to rarely fall ill from the new virus.
The ban was lifted at 9 a.m. After a few early risers trickled out to otherwise deserted streets, many could not resist the draw of Barcelona’s beach promenade, the closest they could get to the sand that remains off-limits. Benches with views of the Mediterranean were packed with people, some of who, but not all, wore masks. Police told an Associated Press photographer that they were having difficulties enforcing the social distancing rules that families should stay a minimum of a meter apart.
Health Minister Salvador Illa said that the information he managed indicated that “the restrictions have generally been followed,” but that “we will evaluate the situation and take steps if necessary.”
Some local authorities, however, did single out rule breakers.
Valencia’s lieutenant mayor Sandra Gómez posted a video on her Twitter account showing a group of children kicking a ball together in a park, with more people huddled in the background.
“Responsibility. We have opened the parks for people to walk in pleasant areas not for soccer,” Gómez wrote. “Imagine what those (owners of) closed restaurants and shops who are making an enormous economic effort will think you are doing. Warning: what doesn’t work will be taken back.” (AP)