on 29 february, asturias and navarre reported their first cases, one each. on 1 march, in andalusia, two doctors were confirmed as infected, increasing the number of andalusian cases to 12. in the basque country another four cases were reported, from other parts of spain. in castilla–la mancha the first case of coronavirus was confirmed, and extremadura announced the first four cases. on 2 march in cantabria, nine new cases originating from people who travelled to italy increased the total cases there 10 cases in the community. in castile and león five new cases in one day brought the total to eight people affected by coronavirus in the region. catalonia reported three more positive cases, all related to travel from italy. there were two new positives in extremadura, bringing the total to 6. madrid reported that its total had increased to 29. in la rioja, the first case was confirmed. on 3 march, the second and third cases in asturias were reported. in the balearic islands a third positive case was confirmed. in the basque country three more positives, two in álava, and the first one in biscay, raised the total positives to 13 for the region. in castilla–la mancha there were four new cases reported, bringing the total up to seven, two in the province of guadalajara and another two in the province of toledo. in the community of madrid 27 new positive cases of coronavirus brought the total up to 56, with five serious in intensive care. in la rioja the second case of coronavirus was confirmed. in the valencian community, four new cases were confirmed, bringing the number of infected to 19 cases. the first death in madrid took place on 3 march but was not confirmed until 5 march. on 4 march, prime minister pedro sánchez visited the coordination centre for health alerts and emergencies (es). on 8 march, around 120,000 people participated in an international women's day march in madrid and some 60,000 football fans filled one of the city's largest stadiums. parliamentary opposition speculates that the will to allow for the international women's day celebration was one of the primary reasons for the government to downplay the danger, and delay pandemic response until later. international women's day march in madrid, 8 march 2020 on 9 march, the catalan regional government suspended events with more than one thousand attendees under its jurisdiction. the first death in extremadura was reported. on 12 march, most of the autonomous communities shut down their school systems, leaving more than ten million students (a million in university and nine million in primary and secondary education) at home, initially for two weeks. two cases of the virus are confirmed in the autonomous city of melilla, while the first two cases reported in the island of la palma. spain's stock index, ibex 35, fell 14%, in the highest drop in history for one day. state of alarm (13–27 march) spanish prime minister pedro sánchez announces the state of alarm nationwide on 13 march, prime minister of spain pedro sánchez announced a declaration of a nationwide state of alarm for 15 days, to become effective the following day after the approval of the council of ministers. the president of the audiencia nacional announced the suspension of all the ordinary functions of this court for 15 days, keeping only the urgent proceedings and the court on duty. judicial activity in the community of madrid, basque country, igualada and haro were suspended by an order of the general council of the judiciary. vicepresident of castile and león, francisco igea, announced the suspension of the holy week festivities in the region after talks with the regional administration. all provinces of spain confirmed at least one positive after cases are confirmed in ávila, cuenca, huesca, palencia and soria, leaving the autonomous city of ceuta and the islands of el hierro and formentera as the only territories without cases reported. catalonia reported 190 new cases in the highest rise in cases in a day. the first two cases were reported in the autonomous city of melilla. disinfection of the underground in bilbao, basque country, 21 march on 15 march the national lockdown due to the state of alarm becomes effective. all residents are mandated to remain in their normal residences except to purchase food and medicines, work or attend emergencies. this suppression of the freedom of movement was later (in july 2021) declared unconstitutional under the state of alarm by the constitutional court of spain in response to the appeal by vox (submitted in april 2020). lockdown restrictions also mandated the temporary closure of non-essential shops and businesses, including bars, restaurants, cafes, cinemas and commercial and retail businesses, while also announcing that the government will be able to take over private healthcare providers, if needed. the announcement came following significant increases in the number of confirmed cases of covid-19 in spain, increasing by 66% from 3,146 cases to 5,232 cases on 13 march 2020. the "extraordinary decision", according to the pm pedro sánchez, is necessary as spain deals with a "health, social and economic crisis". seville's seville fair is postponed to september for the first time in its history. the first case in the autonomous city of ceuta was diagnosed. on 17 march, pm pedro sánchez announces a support package of more than 200 billion euros, almost 20% of the spanish gdp, to cushion the impact of the coronavirus crisis. the royal decree approved by his government also includes a moratorium on the payment of mortgages for workers and self-employed in economic vulnerability and for those affected by covid-19, as well as the streamlining of temporary dismissal files (known as erte), support for workers and companies affected by downturns, measures to guarantee the liquidity of companies and to promote research to achieve a vaccine. the first death in the province of tarragona is confirmed in valls hospital, an 88-year-old woman from badalona. the gran vía of madrid on 22 march on 19 march, the first death of a healthcare worker in the country is reported, a nurse from the basque country. on 20 march, spain exceeds 1,000 deaths. the first case is confirmed on the island of el hierro. on 21 march, the ministry of health announces the purchase of 640,000 rapid tests and reports that more than 350,000 tests for covid-19 had been conducted. on 22 march, spanish pm pedro sánchez announces that he will take the petition to extend the state of alarm in the nation until 11 april to the congress after consultations with regional presidents. the president of the region of murcia orders the cessation of all non-essential economic activities, a decision later revoked by the central government. on 23 march, the spanish army found elderly people abandoned and dead inside retirement homes, according to defence minister margarita robles. a criminal investigation is launched. the "palacio del hielo", an ice rink in madrid, begins to be used as a morgue. by this date, 5,400 medical professionals are confirmed to have tested positive for coronavirus and sent home, further straining the hospitals, where a lack of protective equipment has put workers at risk. halting of all non-essential activity (28 march – 12 april) number of cases (blue) and number of deaths (red) on a logarithmic scale on 28 march, the spanish government banned all non-essential activity, providing affected workers with paid recoverable leave unless they provide an essential service, work remotely, are on sick leave, or have their contracts suspended. the next day, two cases of coronavirus were diagnosed on formentera, balearic islands, leaving the island of la graciosa (canary islands) as the only territory with no cases detected. on 30 march, fernando simón, the head of spain's centre for health emergencies and the public face of the government's response because of his daily briefings, tested positive for the virus and temporarily resigned. on 4 april, prime minister pedro sánchez asked the congress of deputies to extend the state of alarm for another two weeks, until 26 april, a request that was granted on 9 april. from 3 to 11 april, the number of new cases and deaths in general had a decreasing trend. on 3 april, 950 deaths were reported, the highest number for a single country over a 24-hour interval, on the same day, estimates for the basic reproduction number of the virus indicated a number below 1.0 for the first time, meaning that each case was, on average, infecting less than one other person. on 4, 5, and 6 april, consecutive decreases in number of new cases and deaths were reported, including 637 new deaths on 6 april, the lowest figure in ten days. on 10 april, the number of confirmed deaths dropped to 605, and then on 11 april to 510, the lowest figure in more than a month; the number of confirmed cases increased by only 3%, the lowest amount since the ministry of health began collecting data. lifting of some restrictions (13 april – 1 may) on 13 april, workers in some non-essential sectors, such as construction and industry, who cannot work remotely were allowed to return to work; the government began the distribution of millions of face masks in public transportation hubs. on 21 april, the government announced that from 26 or 27 april children under the age of 14 will be able to go out on short walks with their parents or other adults living in the same household. on 23 april, the state of alarm was extended until 9 may, with further extensions envisioned. de-escalation (2 may–july) on 28 april, the government announced a plan for easing lockdown restrictions. the plan has four phases, numbered 0 through 3, and each of the phases 1 through 3 will last at least two weeks. the transition from one phase to the next will be based on public health indicators such as number of cases and capacity of the healthcare system. phase 0 allowed people out of their homes for short walks and individual sports from 2 may phase 1 began on 11 may in 26 provinces and territories comprising about half of the spanish population. it includes the opening of small shops, of terraces at 50% capacity, and of places of worship at one-third capacity. the plan is estimated to have a duration of eight weeks if there are no setbacks. preliminary results from a large-scale serologic study, made public on 13 may, suggested that about 5% of the population of spain had developed antibodies for sars-cov-2. the percentage was higher than 11% in the provinces of soria (14.2), cuenca (13.5), segovia (12.6), albacete (11.6), madrid (11.3) and ciudad real (11.1), but still substantially below the 60% suggested to be needed to achieve herd immunity. on 4 june and 6 july, the results of the second and third wave of the nationwide seroprevalence study showed the percentage of population infected to have slightly increased, reaching 5.2%. according to this study based on sample of more than 63,000 people, madrid and several provinces of castilla–la mancha and castile and león would be the most affected areas with a percentage of infection greater than 10%on 6 july 2020, the results of the third and last wave of a government of spain nationwide seroprevalence study showed that about two million people, or 5.2% of the population, could have been infected during the pandemic, confirming the data from previous waves. phase 2 began on 18 may in some balearic islands; at the same time, the remaining of andalusia and the valencian community, as well as some territories in castile and león and in catalonia joined phase 1. as of 25 may 2020, 47% of the territory of spain was on phase 2. as of 8 june 2020, 48% of the country was on phase 2 and 52% on phase 3; the latter includes less stringent restrictions for the opening of shops, hotels, bars, entertainment and nightlife venues. as of 15 june 2020, 75% of the spanish population was on phase 3 and several provinces entered the "new normality" phase. the state of alarm expired at midnight of sunday 21 june, and spain entered a "new normality" phase, in which restrictions such as maximum occupancy in shops are handled by each autonomous community independently. at the state level, the government maintained