45.8 Overall Score (No change since Aug 1st)

Spain

  • 35.3 Public Health
    Directives
  • 13.1 Financial
    Response
  • 80 Fact-Based
    Communication
  • 35.3 Public Health
    Directives
  • 13.1 Financial
    Response
  • 80 Fact-Based
    Communication

Spain's score jumped since January to just over the median, having implemented stricter public health policies, but the country's minimal stimulus support still drags down its overall score.

Pre-COVID Conditions

Spain did well in most subcategories, but its low number of hospital beds likely played a large role in officials struggling with the COVID-19 case spike, bringing its score down.

  • Debt/GDP ratio 97.1%
  • GDP/capita $43,008
  • Gini coefficient (out of 100) 34.7
  • Infant mortality rate (out of 1,000 live births) 3
  • Healthcare access score (out of 100) 89.6
  • Hospital beds/1,000 People 21.2

Government Response

Select a data point for more information
(Data points represent policy level as of Oct 1.)
35.3

Public Health Directives

Spain has relatively weak public health policy, driven by a relaxed stay-at-home policy, few public gathering restrictions, limited testing, and minimal funds allocated for emergency healthcare spending.

  • Stay at home order 1
  • Public gathering restrictions 4
  • School closings 0
  • Public event cancellations 2
  • Testing policy 0
  • Emergency healthcare investments/capita $90.04
  • Travel restrictions 3
  • Tests/1,000 people 205.3
  • Contact tracing 1
13.1

Financial Response

Spain's financial response score is weak, due to the late implentation of income support and debt forebearance.

  • Financial stimulus as share of GDP 10.4%
  • Income support 2
  • Debt forebearance 2
80

Fact-Based Communication

Spain’s government has been relatively strong in this category, as it has not engaged in misinformation, but it has limited the media’s access to information regarding COVID-19.

  • Reliance on science/fact based information 0
  • Press freedom 1

COVID-19 Status as of Oct 1

Spain’s early experience with the pandemic, characterized by a very high volume of cases and deaths, put it in the bottom quartile. Following a period of time when it appeared to be testing the population widely, its positivity rate has gone up once again.

  • Total deaths 31,973
  • Death rate per 100K 683.8
  • Total cases 778,607
  • Cases per 100K 16,653
  • Percent of positive tests 11
  • Change in positivity rates +5.9
Case Trend Line
Daily cases Level 1 Lockdown Level 2 Lockdown
Date Status New Cases/1M
1 May 26 Schools, theaters, and exhibitions partially reopen 12.90
2 Jun 10 Bars and restaurants reopen 5.97
3 Aug 14 Nightclubs close, outdoor consumption of alcohol is banned, and bars and restaurants must close by 1 a.m. 86.93
4 Sep 21 Begin localized lockdowns in parts of Madrid 237.53

Differentiating Factors

  • New outbreak reimposes lockdown measures: Healthcare workers in hospitals were infected after gathering for a retirement party, leading to reimposed lockdown measures to curb the spread of the virus. Read More
  • Pandemic-denier arrested: The Spanish police arrested a COVID-19 denier for using fake social media accounts to claim health professionals and the media were behind a "COVID farce" and urging follwers to attack politicians. Read More
  • Spain expands testing in bid to understand second wave: The government is overseeing an expanded and randomized testing regime in a bid to understand the country's mounting second wave, which has seen high case incidences but low fatalities and hospitalizations. Doctors believe this may be due to the relatively younger profile of the new wave of COVID sufferers. Read More
  • Spaniards divided over government response: New polling by Pew Research Center finds that Spain is divided over the government's coronavirus response, with 47% of respondents saying their country has done a bad job of dealing with the outbreak, and 53% saying the response has been good. Read More
  • Strong financial response helped control spread: Spain's success in gaining control of an early and catastrophic coronavirus spread can be largely credited to its generous financial response. The central government announced a 200 billion euro relief package, half of which was earmarked for struggling business and 9 billion euros of which is being used to strengthen regional healthcare systems. Read More
  • Government's minimum-income policy preventing layoffs: The government has introduced a guaranteed minimum income scheme which pays up to 70 perecent of salaries and is currently supporting 2 million workers. Spain's Labor Minister announced the extension of this scheme into 2021, to avoid a cliff edge scenario in which millions are suddenly laid off when the scheme ends. Read More
  • Major unemployment, especially among youth: Despite this economic support, around one million Spaniards have lost their jobs due to COVID-19, about half of whom are under 35 years old. The government hopes that the creation of new seasonal jobs will benefit the youth population, which already suffered from high levels of unemployment before the pandemic. Read More
Compared with EU Neighbors
  • 72
    France 563,535
    Cases     8,633
    Per 1M     31,956
    Deaths

    France maintained its improved public health policy from the early fall, keeping its score relatively strong, although poor contact tracing and a relatively small stimulus package kept it from being higher.

  • 72.8
    Germany 291,722
    Cases     3,482
    Per 1M     9,500
    Deaths

    Germany has improved its score a bit in the past few months, after a sharp decline in the fall. Its improvements in contact tracing, which are already likely underestimated in the data, and restrictions on public gatherings, have played important roles in this turnaround, although there has been a recent spike in cases, likely due to both recent restriction relaxations and vaccine rollout issues.

  • 66
    Italy 314,861
    Cases     5,208
    Per 1M     35,894
    Deaths

    While hit hard by COVID-19, Italy’s reliance on facts and improved contact tracing has helped slow the spread and slightly improved its overall score since January.

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New Zealand

Statistics and government response factors available on each country profile include:

Pre-COVID Conditions:

  • Debt to GDP ratio
  • Infant mortality rates
  • Hospital beds per 1,000 people
  • Gini coefficients measuring inequality
  • Health access and quality

COVID-19 Public Health Directives:

  • Stay-at home orders
  • School-closing policy
  • Public-gathering restrictions
  • Cancellation of public events
  • Testing policy and rates per 1,000 people
  • Emergency healthcare spending per capita
  • Travel restrictions
  • Contact tracing

COVID-19 Financial Response:

  • Stimulus package as a share of GDP
  • Income support
  • Debt-forbearance

Public Communications:

  • Instances of misinformation by leadership
  • Limitations on press freedom, censorship

Current/Historic In-Country COVID-19 Status:

  • Death rates per 1 million
  • Case rates per 1 million