Spain to have one last state of emergency extension

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Sunday said he would ask parliament for a final two-week extension of the nation's state of emergency that has allowed his government to introduce lockdown measures to control the coronavirus pandemic.

The current state of emergency is set to expire on June 7 and the lockdown measures have succeeded to reining in a COVID-19 outbreak that has claimed at least 27,000 lives in Spain.

Sánchez said that the "last and definitive" stretch of the lockdown would include the handing back of control over health care to the regions that have shown the most progress in containing the virus.

The central government's focus is now on keeping the virus in check while reactivating an economy that Sánchez said will shrink by over 9% this year and take two years to recover.

Image Credits: AP