Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day six since
Speaker 1: coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Our main story. Madrid
Speaker 1: was one of Europe's hardest hit cities by the coronavirus,
Speaker 1: but now it's springing back to life. We explore how
Speaker 1: the city is preparing to reopen hundreds of bars and restaurants.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to owners about the unique challenges they're facing
Speaker 1: as they struggle to keep these cherished businesses going. But first,
Speaker 1: here's what happened today. The US unemployment rate unexpectedly fell
Speaker 1: in May as the economy posted a surprise increase in jobs.
Speaker 1: The report signals the economy is picking up faster than
Speaker 1: an anticipated that said twenty one million Americans remain unemployed.
Speaker 1: The jobless rate is still higher than at any other
Speaker 1: time since ninety and economists say the unemployment rate for
Speaker 1: African Americans actually ticked up to sixteen point eight percent.
Speaker 1: That's more than four percentage points higher than for white Americans.
Speaker 1: This comes after more than a week of protests over
Speaker 1: racism and police brutality. New York City reached an important
Speaker 1: milestone in its battle against the coronavirus. For the first
Speaker 1: time since March, the city reported no confirmed fatalities from
Speaker 1: the virus. For months, the city was the global epicenter
Speaker 1: of the pandemic. In April, the city had almost six
Speaker 1: hundred confirmed deaths per day, but elsewhere the news is grave.
Speaker 1: Brazil surpassed Italy as the country with the third most
Speaker 1: fatalities in the world, and even as the pandemic eases
Speaker 1: in some countries, the virus continues to spread. There are
Speaker 1: about one hundred thousand new cases being added every day
Speaker 1: as hot spots emerge in Latin America and the Middle East. Finally,
Speaker 1: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a
Speaker 1: startling number of Americans are using bleach on food or
Speaker 1: misusing household cleaners in attempts to protect themselves from the coronavirus.
Speaker 1: The agency on Friday released the results of an online
Speaker 1: survey of five hundred people. The survey found that about
Speaker 1: a third of the respondents engaged in quote non recommended
Speaker 1: high risk practices. These included applying household cleaners to the
Speaker 1: skin or inhaling or ingesting them, risking quote severe tissue
Speaker 1: damage and corrosive injury. The report doesn't directly reference President
Speaker 1: Trump's widely denounced suggestion at a news conference in April,
Speaker 1: when he urged researchers to study the use of light
Speaker 1: or disinfectants on human bodies as potential treatments for the coronavirus.
Speaker 1: And now our main story, Madrid is opening back up
Speaker 1: after a long, hard few months. The city has endured
Speaker 1: sixty nine thousand cases of coronavirus and almost nine thousand
Speaker 1: people have died. Bloomberg reporter Jeanette Newman takes us to
Speaker 1: a post lockdown Madrid that is both heartbroken and giddy,
Speaker 1: heartbroken by the loss of thousands of its citizens to
Speaker 1: the pandemic, but giddy with a renewed sense of possibility
Speaker 1: despite the challenges that lie ahead. H I cursed that
Speaker 1: sound every morning for about six years, A nearby shop
Speaker 1: owner rolling up the metal shutters covering his storefront a
Speaker 1: screeching start to every day. But for two months, during
Speaker 1: the confinement in the center of Madrid where I live,
Speaker 1: the mornings were silent, so we're the afternoons and evenings.
Speaker 1: The screeching started again about two weeks ago. The sound
Speaker 1: still grates on me, but I have a bit of
Speaker 1: a soft spot for it. Now it's become a daily
Speaker 1: reminder that the city and the broader Spanish economy are
Speaker 1: coming back to life. Spain's government is gradually lifting one
Speaker 1: of Europe's strictest lockdowns in four stages, province by province,
Speaker 1: and in fourteen day increments. It's as if those of
Speaker 1: us living in Spain had been forced to go on
Speaker 1: a fast for two months, and now we're slowly reintroducing
Speaker 1: some of life's pleasures. First a bicycle ride outside, then
Speaker 1: visits with friends and family, eating and dining out, eventually travel.
Speaker 1: In Madrid, we're in the second week of what's known
Speaker 1: as Phase one. Most noticeably that means madri Lanos have
Speaker 1: been allowed to drink and dine outside at bars and
Speaker 1: restaurants the first time since mid March. The sounds of
Speaker 1: the city are slowly returning. That's this Sunday before we
Speaker 1: entered Phase one. It's PM on the Placa Santana, a
Speaker 1: square in central Madrid. And this is the next night,
Speaker 1: in the same spot and the same time, but now
Speaker 1: with outdoor seating on the terraces at fifty pass we're
Speaker 1: also allowed to gather with up to ten people at home.
Speaker 1: That's meant reunions with friends. For the first time in months,
Speaker 1: I visited friends for dinner on Friday, our first gathering
Speaker 1: since March. Hello, Hello, I get that the shared meals
Speaker 1: have been a welcome respite after the long confinement take us.
Speaker 1: This is a celebration. The overpowering feeling, though, is one
Speaker 1: of whiplash. Spain is a national mourning for the more
Speaker 1: than seven thousand people who have died during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and the country, along with the rest of the world,
Speaker 1: is emerging into the most severe downturn in living memory.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Economics expects Spain and Italy to be among the
Speaker 1: hardest hit countries in the world this year, suffering economic
Speaker 1: contractions of eleven and respectively. That's fueled anger and despair.
Speaker 1: Some in Spain have channeled their frustration into a nightly
Speaker 1: cacophony that's known as a castro lada. That's a banging
Speaker 1: together of pots and pans, a common form of protest here.
Speaker 1: Every night for the past several weeks, people have been
Speaker 1: making noise from their windows, balconies and local plusas at
Speaker 1: nine pm. They're demonstrating against Spain's government. A coalition between
Speaker 1: the center left socialists and the far left Potamost Party.
Speaker 1: Protesters say the government responded slowly to the onset of
Speaker 1: the pandemic and that the emergency economic measures have been
Speaker 1: too little, too late. Now that we're allowed to gather
Speaker 1: with friends, many people seem to prefer to be outside
Speaker 1: their homes in the evening. So the intensity of the
Speaker 1: castro ladas has eased in recent days, but the frustrations
Speaker 1: and worries haven't. I have like a hundred messages that
Speaker 1: I have to check. It's like two hours and then
Speaker 1: it's like it's better not. Ophelia Marine opened three of
Speaker 1: her seven restaurants in Madrid last week. At this stage,
Speaker 1: only outdoor seating is allowed and only a fifty percent capacity.
Speaker 1: She says the authorities are focusing too much on the minutia.
Speaker 1: They're missing the existential threat facing many of Madrid's restaurants
Speaker 1: and bars. We spoke at one of her restaurants, La
Speaker 1: Model Cartman. In one of the locations, we had um
Speaker 1: twenty three tables. Okay, so now you have two cuts
Speaker 1: by half twenty three by half. It's eleven and a half.
Speaker 1: So okay, we said we're gonna put twelve in. It's
Speaker 1: a big exactly, it's a big plata. We have space,
Speaker 1: it's beautiful. Not many cars, not many people. So the
Speaker 1: police comes and they removed one of ten. So they
Speaker 1: had they had definitely counted exactly how many? Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: but doesn't make any sense for who what good that makes.
Speaker 1: Spain also requires restaurants to keep tables a socially distanced
Speaker 1: two ms apart. That's about six and a half feet.
Speaker 1: Ophelia says the number seems arbitrary. In France, social distances
Speaker 1: one meter. In Italy it's one meter in some regions
Speaker 1: and one point eight in others. In Germany one point
Speaker 1: five ms, the World Health Organization says one. Spain's government
Speaker 1: says the restrictions on occupancy and distance between patrons are
Speaker 1: necessary to ensure the country avoids new outbreaks. Restaurant managers
Speaker 1: say they support safety measures, but they say the current
Speaker 1: restrictions make it impossible to generate enough revenue to cover
Speaker 1: the cost of reopening. That's one of the reasons that
Speaker 1: more than two thirds of the bars and restaurants in
Speaker 1: Madrid that are allowed to open their outdoor terraces have
Speaker 1: remained shuttered. The average bar size in Spain is around
Speaker 1: a hundred square meters roughly a thousand square feet. The
Speaker 1: country's small, intimate eateries are part of its old world charm,
Speaker 1: but there are distinct disadvantage in a socially distanced economy.
Speaker 1: Ophelia says she's worried that even when Madrid's restaurants can
Speaker 1: start serving inside, revenue will still suffer social distance. I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be till you know phase three four
Speaker 1: who knows, But social distance I think is gonna stay
Speaker 1: for a while and which that kills us. One option
Speaker 1: would be to step up online food deliveries, but that's
Speaker 1: not as common in Spain as in some other countries.
Speaker 1: Some restaurants have tried to pivot quickly to eat commerce,
Speaker 1: only to realize the commissions on existing platforms can be
Speaker 1: as much as thirty five percent. That's untenable in an
Speaker 1: industry where margins are on average around Spain was the
Speaker 1: second most visited country in the world last year. Visitors
Speaker 1: are able to return starting in July, but hotel managers
Speaker 1: say they don't expect to get back to the glory
Speaker 1: days for at least several years. Spain's islands and beachside
Speaker 1: resorts are already receiving reservations for the truncated summer season.
Speaker 1: Many hotel managers in Madrid, though, say they're likely to
Speaker 1: remain shuttered through September. They won't be able to fill
Speaker 1: their rooms without the conferences and business meetings that normally
Speaker 1: bring people in July and August. Juan Luis de Lucas
Speaker 1: Martine is an exception. The hotel cloud Age that he
Speaker 1: manages is among the few open in the city. The
Speaker 1: sprince has been okay, occupancy has been well horrible. Spaniards
Speaker 1: still aren't allowed to travel between provinces. With some exceptions.
Speaker 1: Those who have booked rooms at the cloud Edge have
Speaker 1: come to Madrid to see their doctors or lawyers, or
Speaker 1: in some cases meet up with a loved one. I
Speaker 1: understand all my colleagues have decided not to open until
Speaker 1: September because there will be nothing. We're opening. Nearly all
Speaker 1: the adults in Madrid are closed, and our record on
Speaker 1: the best day as albin eating rooms booked. If Mortel
Speaker 1: were open, it would be absolute disaster because there's no demand.
Speaker 1: That's eighteen out of a hundred fourteen total rooms. Amid
Speaker 1: so many uncertainties, one thing seems clear. The v shaped
Speaker 1: recovery that economists had anticipated for many countries now seems unlikely.
Speaker 1: In Spain and elsewhere. It will be more of a
Speaker 1: slog than a snap back. Jeanette Newmon, Bloomberg News. YEA,
Speaker 1: and that's our show today. For coverage of the outbreak
Speaker 1: from one and twenty bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg
Speaker 1: dot com slash coronavirus and if you like the show,
Speaker 1: please leave us a review and a rating on Apple
Speaker 1: Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more
Speaker 1: listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is
Speaker 1: produced by Topher Foreheads Jordan Gaspure, Magnus Hendrickson and me
Speaker 1: Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Jeanette Numan.
Speaker 1: Original music by Leo Sidrin. Our editors are Friend cscA
Speaker 1: Levi and Rick Shine. Francesca Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.