LIVING WITH THE ENEMY

Who could have imagined, as we hugged and kissed each other last New Year’s Eve, that three months later we’d be embracing masks and swapping our cosy six degrees of separation for a clinical two metres? We’re at war suffering heavy losses, the global economy is on a ventilator and, if you’re lucky enough to still have a job, you could be working at the frontline or facing the invisible enemy on the daily commute. Meanwhile, as Spain moves into June and resorts emerge from ICU with a risk of regression, no one on these sunny shores is sure when we’ll see foreign tourists again. It’s life, but not as we know it. As we transition out of Lockdown into the New Normal, Belinda Beckett finds out what it might mean.

OUR LIVES WILL BE MICRO-MANAGED BY METRICS

If lockdown lift runs smoothly, the New Normal will dawn on June 25.

Living with the enemy

This month Spain is scheduled to transition through the final two phases of Pedro Sánchez’ four-step deescalation plan, confusingly numbered 0 to 3, when the country will emerge from its induced coma like Sleeping Beauty with reopened borders and beaches ready for a delayed summer season extended to October. But that could be wishful thinking.

While the pandemic curve is flattening we still don’t know if we’re heading for calmer waters or merely paddling in the shallows of the next wave which gains force as we relax our guard. Coronavirus could be contained in eight months, like SARS; or it could keep churning through the population until we get a vaccine or reach herd immunity, like Spanish flu, which lasted two years and cost 50 million lives.

For now, our own lives will be ruled by data, the R Rate of Reproduction and ‘testing, testing, testing’. Spain is one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic, with a harder lockdown.

Andalucía has fared better with the third lowest cases and deaths in the country but some provinces are ‘squashing the sombrero’ more successfully than others, creating odd anomalies: at the time of writing, you could enjoy a cup of coffee on a Sotogrande bar terrace in Cádiz Province but 15 km down the road at Puerto de la Duquesa in Málaga Province, everything was closed.

Six provinces entered Phase 1 last month while Málaga and Granada remained in Phase 0, unable to meet the metrics for infection rates, ICU beds and PPE. With hefty fines for regulation breaking, you need to know where you stand or, indeed, sit.

What we do know is that the end of lockdown doesn’t mean Covid-19 isn’t out there; it means the hospital now has room for us. We tread a fine line between saving lives and saving livelihoods.

Or as New York’s straighttalking Governor Andrew Cuomo aptly put it: “You tell me how you are going to behave today and I’ll tell you how many of you will be checking into the hospital in seven-to-ten days time. It’s that clear. Our destiny is in our own hands.”

INTERESTING TIMES

Our daily routine could soon be dependent on a smart phone app and QR codes ID-ing your health status: green, you’re free to proceed, amber or red, you should be in 7/14 day quarantine. It’s been the reality in China for weeks now, while the South Koreans are geo-tagged with electronic wristbands like criminals.

Spain has promised a voluntary app which will be used to monitor infection hotspots, not to seek out and fine lockdown offenders. We are not yet sliding towards the dystopian society foretold in George Orwell’s 1984.

But who dreamed we’d live to see an Olympics Year with no Games, football matches without fans, a world where families were kept apart on Mother’s Day, a Spain where people no longer exchange besitos?

We are living in ‘interesting times’, to quote from the old Chinese curse disguised as a blessing – and in some ways it might be.

We’re eating more healthily, taking more exercise (and actually enjoying it), helping the planet and saving money by mending and not buying new, being more considerate to others... We are, in fact, keeping our 2020 New Year Resolutions by default.

But it’s not the Roaring Twenties we pictured. We won’t be going to Glastonbury or the Gibraltar Music Festival. We won’t be taking a cruise or going on an African Safari.

Cash will no longer be king (plastic’s easier to clean) and although we’ll try to support our local communities, our dwindling savings will mostly go on bills, groceries and another computer for the kids.

Dining out will be a new experience with Plexiglas screens between tables (and what do you do with your mask?). The hospitality industry is having a hard time, with clientele halved and tables at two metres distance (not good for overheads or ambience) but they are coming up with solutions to keep nervous customers safe.

Interesting times, although devastating, engender new ideas and we’re working it through, from home if we can, keeping in touch with the grandkids on Zoom, catching up with the DIY, learning a new skill, home baking (flour sales have tripled) and appreciating life’s simpler pleasures.

Life goes on, just differently. Although they’ll be playing to empty stadia, even La Liga is kicking back into action on June 12, fingers crossed.

Who thought we’d see TV presenters broadcasting from their living rooms and relaying the weather forecast from their back gardens. Checking out their bookcases and taste in décor is almost as compelling as the latest coronavirus bulletin. Did you catch Stephen Dixon’s cat Timmy in the background on Sky TV!

BUSINESS WILL BE FAR FROM USUAL

Homeworking is here to stay

Homeworking is no longer a future trend. The genie is out of the bottle and some people may never return to the office again. You can get used to having time to hang out the washing, pop to the shops and prepare a healthy family dinner, even if the utility bills are going up and you miss the office banter. And if companies spend many more months paying rates on halfempty offices, there could be fewer workplaces to go to.

Flexible hours and staggered shifts to avoid ‘rush hours’ for those who do have to turn up for work are other habits that could stick. Offices are gearing up with one-way systems, distanced cubicle desks, windows that open or air-conditioning with ozone to see off airborne viruses.

The elbow bump could become normal etiquette

As America’s top virologist recently said, “We’ll never shake hands again.” Instead we could be bumping elbows and handing out business cards on the end of selfie sticks. Smart jackets and tracksuit bottoms are already standard work wear for home-based execs seen on Zoom only from the waist up.

But the spectre of rising unemployment is back. Between March and April, paro claims in Spain rose from 2.2 to 5.2 million although this includes one fifth of the workforce on ERTEs with jobs they hope to return to.

Meanwhile, working parents can’t breathe a total sigh of relief when Spanish schools reopen in September. The nationwide limit of 15 students per class requires a mixed model of online and on-site teaching in shifts – mornings, afternoons or alternate days of the week. The school run will be a nightmare.

TWO WHEELS GOOD, TWO LEGS BETTER

Like most countries, Spain is encouraging commuters to get on their bikes or walk to work to ease crowding on public transport – a tough call in a motoring nation way down the European rankings for bicycle use.

Andalucía is better placed, having wheeled out a monster master plan to create over 5,000 km of cycle paths in 2013. Last year Sevilla was named 4th best bike-friendly city in the world with 160 km of twoway lanes and a municipal bike hire scheme with 250 docking stations.

Meanwhile some cities are reinventing themselves with 15-minute neighbourhoods. Initially mooted years ago to ease traffic congestion, you’ll be able to find everything you need, from schools and supermarkets to jobs and banks, all within a quarter-of-an-hour radius on foot. It could be a life saver for the high street.

Sevilla is all geared up for the two-wheel commute

ISOLATION VACATIONS

Was it only last year we were worrying about overtourism in Barcelona? It will be a while before Spain’s big cities have that problem again.

“International tourism this summer is effectively dead,” said Andalucía Junta’s VP, Juan Marín when Britain and Spain announced quarantine for foreign visitors last month, which would force them to stay indoors for 14 days at the start and end of the trip.

However travel between neighbouring EU nations is on the cards. Countries with similar Covid risk profiles are planning to open their borders to each other’s tourists, linked via ‘quarantine-free

corridors´, with mutually agreed health checks. These coronavirusfree ‘safety bubbles’ will expand in phases until all borders are open. “Our message is we will have a tourist season this summer, even if it’s with security measures and limitations,” says the EU.

Austria and Germany were among the first to reach a deal which will allow reciprocal travel from June 15. Brexit Britain is also opening a ‘quarantine-free corridor’ between Ireland and France. In Spain it might logically start with travel between Portugal and Andorra – a lifeline for tourism given that Brits won’t be back here for a while.

Most Spaniards are determined to take a holiday once border lockdown lifts and Andalucía is top of their bucket list, according to a survey by travel consultancy DNA Tourism and Leisure.

But the convoy of Seat Leones from Sevilla and Córdoba may not be headed for the usual tourist hotspots. City sight-seeing and throbbing nightlife are unfavoured for obvious reasons while active rural tourism is very much in, up and running (a great way to practise for the bike commute), along with quieter beach resorts and, por supuesto, spending time at holiday homes.

Air travel will be off our radar for longer, despite Ryanair’s optimistic plans for 1,000 daily flights to Europe from July 1. According to IATA, 40% of travellers plan to wait at least six months after the virus had been contained before jetting anywhere, especially when a trip to the airport means temperature tests, thermal imaging cameras and the risk of not being allowed to board.

Easyjet is among the airlines that will be leaving middle seats free, but there have already been stories of sardine-packed flights.

It’s a time of extraordinary innovation. The Spanish Hotels Association is rolling out ‘Covid-Safe certificates’, while Madrid’s VP Plaza España Design is premiering pre-check-in temperature tests, PPE welcome kits, steam cleaned everything, automatic, no-handle doors and individual picnic baskets instead of the breakfast buffet.

Even beachlife will be more nuanced. Fuengirola Ayuntamiento has unveiled ‘traffic light beaches’ – a free app that advises sun worshippers whether there are plenty of loungers (green), it’s getting busy (amber) or they’re full (red).

The system works with motion sensors attached to lampposts along the prom. Beach beds hived off behind Plexiglas cubicles could be the next big thing. Italy is trying them out on the Riviera.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

Wildlife is reclaiming our silent cities

The planet, at least, is benefiting from the crisis. Venice’s canals are clean and blue, the smog over Delhi has lifted, restoring views of the Himalayas, and wildlife is reclaiming our silent cities.

Wild boar roaming through downtown Barcelona, coyotes in the streets of San Francisco and the resurgence of bees have been sights to behold since the world went on lockdown, proving that nature can rebound.

Shuttered factories, garaged cars and grounded planes could add up to the largest one-year drop in emissions in history although they’d need to fall a lot more to meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals. But now we have an added incentive.

The science shows that pollution and coronavirus are partners in crime. Particle-clogged air leads to the respiratory problems that make zoonotic diseases like Covid-19 much more lethal.

Travel in 2020 means getting away from it all

Since the outbreak in Wuhan, China has reintroduced a partial ban on bushmeat while at home we’re consuming far less – the crisis has seen a + 30% drop in spending, although that’s not so good for the economy.

Long weeks of lockdown have also highlighted the need for cities that put people before cars, public housing with more light and outside space, care homes that care, and betterfunded public health services that protect medical staff and patients with other lifethreatening conditions. Spain’s A & Es have seen a 40 per cent drop in admissions for heart attacks because victims are too scared to go to the hospital.

However, ‘The doctor will skype you now’ is no longer a funny meme on Facebook. Online consultations are already here!