Coronavirus live updates - breaking news, new measures, latest figures
Government enters 'emergency 1 phase' for first time ever, €1 billion finance credit offered to help companies
With the covid-19 coronavirus now declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and more confirmed cases appearing in Catalonia and Spain each day, authorities have put new economic and work measures in place to mitigate the impact of the outbreak, while local and national authorities have put various preventive measures to try and minimize the spread of the coronavirus.
So far, there are 316 confirmed cases of the virus in Catalonia, a jump of 135 in just one day, while all of Spain counts more than 3,000 covid-19 patients, with 84 deaths. These figures are accurate as of Thursday, 18:50.
The Catalan government announced a new set of measures on Thursday morning, including a €1 billion finance credit to help companies during this time, and making the health services number 061 free to call, as it is now being used as an emergency number.
On Wednesday evening, a new cluster of positive cases was discovered in the city of Igualada, a short distance outside Barcelona, with 20 new confirmed patients.
All schools in Catalonia will be shut for two weeks starting on Friday, affecting 1.8 million students, around 100,000 teachers, and nearly 5,500 education centers.
From Thursday, all gatherings of over 1,000 people will be cancelled, while smaller gatherings will be significantly limited.