Spain lifts lockdown after 98 days to enter a 'new normality'

Spain’s state of alarm, the emergency mechanism propping up the nationwide lockdown enforced to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, expired at midnight on Saturday (20 June), three months and one week after it first came into effect. From Sunday, Spain entered what politicians around the world have billed the “new normality.” The state of alarm will be lifted but social-distancing, hygiene protocol and obligatory mask use will remain in force until a vaccine for COVID-19 is found. With the gradual easing of restrictions several weeks ago, life has already slowly returned to the streets, squares, shops, highways, factories, offices, bars and beaches up and down the country.