COVID-19 in Spain. Coming back to the “new normality” after 2 months of confinement

Abstract

[EN]Spain is one of the countries most affected by the coronavirus pandemic in the world, with 28,628 deaths as of today May 23, 2020. This figure, the highest after the USA, Italy and UK, underestimates the actual number of deaths attributable to the virus, since it only counts the polymerase chain reaction + cases (and Spain has not been an exception to the scarcity of these diagnostic tests). These data, like any other epidemiological data, must be interpreted in its sociodemographic, cultural and political context. Spain is a culturally diverse country (four co-official languages, Spanish, Galician, Catalan, and Basque) and political, organized in 17 Autonomous Communities (ACs). Spain is one of the countries with the oldest population in the world: 19.3% are over 65 years old, but some ACs such as Asturias, Castilla-León, and Galicia, exceed 25%, reaching much higher percentages in the rural areas. At the same time, Spain enjoys one of the highest life expectancies in the world (83 years at birth, 21.2 at the age of 65) and one of the highest healthy life expectancy