The Spanish Government have today announced that all sporting events will be closed off to spectators until at least April 5th, in an attempt to curb the spread of novel coronavirus.
The announcement comes after the President of La Moncloa (Spanish Government), Pedro Sánchez, revelealed yesterday that an ‘action plan’ was being developed by the government and would be announced this week. Another measure being implimented as part of this plan is a ban on all flights between Italy and Spain until March 25th.
The statement released today to all Spanish sporting federations by the Spanish High Sports Council (CSD) said: “In view of the evolution of the situation generated by the transmission of the Covid-19, the Government will adopt on Tuesday a battery of preventive measures, among which in relation to sport is the celebration of all competitions and sporting events, professional and non-professional, state and international are celebrate behind closed doors”.
The Royal Spanish Swimming Federation also released a statement today on their website which outlined the measures it would now be adopting for any upcoming competitions. This includes:
- The suspension of the XL Spanish Children’s Winter Swimming Championships, which was to be held at the Parque del Oeste de Oviedo from March 12th – 15th.
- All National Waterpolo RFEN Leagues are to be held behind closed doors with only the minimum amount of staff necessary to be present.
As of publishing the Swimming Federation have not released any further details about other competitions which may be affected. However, the Cto. de España “Open” de Primavera P50, which is an Olympic qualification event, is due to take place in Sabadell from April 4th-8th. It is not yet known whether spectators will be allowed to attend that event, or whether it will in fact have to be postponed.
The spread of the disease across Europe has been rampant over the last number of weeks and has led to Italy becoming the first nation to put its entire country on lockdown. As of publishing there are 116,551 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (the disease caused by novel coronavirus) worldwide. 1,646 of these cases are in Spain, with 35 deaths in the country so far.