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A year of the Covid-19 pandemic in Spain: 16 unforgettable photos

It’s been a year since Spain declared the Covid state of alarm and the country’s 47 million inhabitants went into strict lockdown. This visual gallery of powerful photos reveals just how much our lives have changed in 365 days.

Published: 16 March 2021 18:07 CET
A year of the Covid-19 pandemic in Spain: 16 unforgettable photos
Women dressed in flamenco dresses march during a protest to shed light on the difficulties the flamenco fashion sector is facing over coronavirus restrictions, in Seville on February 26, 2021. Photo: CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP

Before and after Covid: On the left, Barceloneta beach in Barcelona on a busy summer’s day in 2017, on the right the same beach is seen completely empty as Spain’s lockdown began. Photo: Josep LAGO/AFP
A woman pushes a stroller in front of a deserted Puerta de Alcalá monument in Madrid on April 26th, 2020. After six weeks stuck at home, Spain’s children were allowed out to run, play or go for a walk. Photo: Gabriel BOUYS/AFP
Spanish physiotherapist Vicente Barrios helps a patient who had coronavirus exercise and recover after her illness.  By late April Spanish authorities had begun to investigate the tragedies that took place behind closed doors at the country’s retirement homes, where thousands of people died without proper assistance. Photo: OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP
Neighbours in a residential building in Madrid dance and clap from their windows to pay tribute to Spain’s healthcare workers on March 28th, 2020. Spain’s death toll from Covid-19 surged over 5,600 in the early days of the pandemic after a record 832 people died in 24 hours, and infections soared over 72,000. At that point Spain had the world’s second-highest coronavirus death toll after Italy with 5,690 fatalities. Photo: Gabriel BOUYS /AFP

Carlos (C), 52, sick with Covid-19, says good bye to his wife and daughter after meeting them for the first time since his admission three months earlier and one week after leaving the ICU. Photo: Josep LAGO/AFP
Medical personnel of Hospital del Mar take COVID-19 patient Marta Pascual (72) back to her unit after popping out for a quick breath of fresh air by the sea. By May, Spain had began its deconfinement plan and was slowly allowing people out on walks and for sport. Photo: LLUIS GENE/AFP

 

The Uceli Quartet perform for an audience made up of plants during a concert created by Spanish artist Eugenio Ampudia at the Liceu Grand Theatre in Barcelona in June 2020. Spain’s art and culture sector remains one of the most badly hit, with ongoing restrictions preventing a return to the stage. Photo:LLUIS GENE/AFP.
As Spain’s shuttered bars and cafes looked to a post-pandemic future, some enterprising businessmen hoped to restore confidence by installing perspex partitions and temperature-reading cameras to keep customers safe. “We are going to have to change our ways of going out,” said Manuel Gil, a 50-year-old running a pilot project at a bakery cafe in Leganes. Photo: JAVIER SORIANO / AFP
Pamplona’s San Fermin Festival was cancelled along with countless other festivities and traditions that form part of Spanish culture. The two photos show what Pamplona’s main street looked like in July 2020 compared the usual running of the bulls it hosts every year. Photos: ANDER GILLENEA / AFP

A man sunbathes surrounded by a barrier tape to set a secure social distance space at Nord Beach in Gandia, near Valencia on July 1, 2020.  The European Union reopened its borders to visitors from 15 countries but excluded the United States, where coronavirus deaths were spiking once again, six months after the first cluster was reported in China. Photo: JOSE JORDAN / AFP
Healthcare workers in Madrid transfer a suspected COVID-19 patient on a stretcher from her home to a hospital in the capital. After the country’s lockdown easing over summer, infections and deaths rose again during the second wave from June to December 2020.  Photo: OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP

 

A priest waits for believers to arrive at Santiago de Compostela Cathedral around Christmas. Spain experienced its third wave of the coronavirus following a spike in cases over the holiday period. Photo: MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP
University teachers wait after being vaccinated against Covid-19 during a mas vaccination campaign at the University of Seville. Spain began its Covid vaccine rollout on December 28th and has so far fully vaccinated around 4 percent of its population. Photo: CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP

 

Care home residents rejoice at a cinema on Madrid’s Gran Vía after leaving their homes for the first time in a year, having received their Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: GABRIEL BOUYS/ AFP
Thousands of Spanish flags are placed in the sand at Patacona beach in Valencia, representing Spanish victims of the Covid-19 pandemic. As of March 15th, 3.2 million people have been infected by the coronavirus in Spain and 72,424 have died from the illness. Photo: Jose Jordan/AFP

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COVID-19

Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

Sweden's Public Health Agency is recommending that those above the age of 80 should receive two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, as it shifts towards a longer-term strategy for the virus.

Published: 23 December 2022 10:53 CET
Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

In a new recommendation, the agency said that those living in elderly care centres, and those above the age of 80 should from March 1st receive two vaccinations a year, with a six month gap between doses. 

“Elderly people develop a somewhat worse immune defence after vaccination and immunity wanes faster than among young and healthy people,” the agency said. “That means that elderly people have a greater need of booster doses than younger ones. The Swedish Public Health Agency considers, based on the current knowledge, that it will be important even going into the future to have booster doses for the elderly and people in risk groups.” 

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People between the ages of 65 and 79 years old and young people with risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, poor kidney function or high blood pressure, are recommended to take one additional dose per year.

The new vaccination recommendation, which will start to apply from March 1st next year, is only for 2023, Johanna Rubin, the investigator in the agency’s vaccination programme unit, explained. 

She said too much was still unclear about how long protection from vaccination lasted to institute a permanent programme.

“This recommendation applies to 2023. There is not really an abundance of data on how long protection lasts after a booster dose, of course, but this is what we can say for now,” she told the TT newswire. 

It was likely, however, that elderly people would end up being given an annual dose to protect them from any new variants, as has long been the case with influenza.

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