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Pedro Sánchez calls for social discipline during a speech on 12 March.
12 March 2020: The day Covid-19 started to affect life in Spain
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12 March 2020: The day Covid-19 started to affect life in Spain

Announcements were made that schools and universities were to suspend classes and cultural and sports centres would close to the public for two weeks

Jennie Rhodes

Friday, 12 March 2021, 19:02

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Thursday 12 March 2020 will go down in history as the daycoronavirus really started to take hold in Spain.

The Spanish stock exchange, the Bolsa, or Ibex-35, fell by 14.06 per cent - the biggest drop in one day in its almost 200-year history (it was founded in 1831) - and to its lowest level since 2012 when Spain was deep in the financial crisis.

On the same day prime minister Pedro Sánchez recommended that all educational centres, from nurseries to universities, should suspend classes for two weeks.

The PM called for "unity, responsibility and social discipline" to tackle the spread of the virus. Sánchez announced a 3.8-billion-euro investment into the public health service to help combat the virus.

In line with the national government's recommendations and indeed all other autonomous regions, leader of the Andalusian government Juanma Moreno also announced on 12 March that all educational centres would close from the following Monday, giving he said, "families time to organise themselves and for students to continue their learning online from Monday".

It was also announced that museums, theatres and other cultural and sports centres were also to be closed to the public as of Monday 16 March.

By 12 March, there were 3,004 reported cases of Covid-19 in the country, of which 154 were in Andalucía. Malaga province was witnessing the highest number of cases, with 97 - in other words 61.4 per cent of the Andalusian total. Across Spain, the virus, which had been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March, had claimed 34 lives.

Malaga's regional hospital (Carlos Haya) announced on 12 March that it would be postponing all non-urgent operations in order to free up beds and had set up a special area to deal only with Covid-19 patients.

Health professionals warned of severe shortages of "adequate resources" such as FPP2 masks and hand sanitiser. They said that demand far outweighed the current reserves.

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