How is Lanzarote coping five years after Covid?

On Friday, March 13th 2020, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a 15-day lockdown in response to the growing threat of what was then known as the coronavirus (it wouldn’t be widely known as Covid-19 until late summer).

The coronavirus had already caused concern. The first case in Spain had been reported on the Canary Island of La Gomera in January and in late February a hotel in Tenerife had been placed on lockdown after an Italian guest tested positive. By mid-March, every region of Spain had reported cases, and governments were desperate to relieve pressure on public health services.

The lockdown took effect on midnight of Saturday, 14th March, with all non-essential businesses ordered to close. Citizens were told to stay in their homes, only permitted out to buy food, medicines or attend emergencies. Lanzarote had been looking forward to a busy Easter period, with many tourists arriving on the island for St Patrick’s Day, but by that evening police were informing bars and pubs in Lanzarote’s resorts that they would have to close immediately

That weekend, hundreds of holidaymakers wandered around the resorts aimlessly, either unaware of the lockdown or unwilling to accept that their holiday had been ruined. Over the following days they would be taken to the airport and returned home in the largest repatriation operation that has ever taken place on the island.

Soon, islanders were left on our own, huddled round screens, gazing out of windows, planning our next shopping outing. A man in Tinajo was fined for taking his chicken for a walk, ambulances visited children whose birthdays were being spent behind closed doors and rainbow posters appeared on balconies.

Two weeks became four, then seven, before we were let out again in early May. Lanzarote has gone through some tough moments since, but none of us who were here exactly five years ago today will ever forget those days when the old normal ended.

The journey to the “new normal” was long and arduous. Regional governments introduced restrictions, which applied during a second wave in August and a third wave in January 2021 that affected Lanzarote particularly badly. During the worst Level 4 restrictions, arrivals and departures from the island were banned, curfews applied, and social gatherings forbidden.

Face masks were only widely available from early May and were made compulsory in public places by 21st May. Testing was also extremely limited, performed at the hospital and, later, at a drive-in centre near Lanzarote’s Cabildo.

The light at the end of the tunnel came when the first vaccines were announced in November 2020 and a national vaccination programme was launched in Spain at Christmas of the same year. It would still take more than a year, however, before normal service was resumed.

THE EFFECTS

For two years following the pandemic, Lanzarote attempted to rebuild its vital tourist industry. The effort was hindered by travel bans, testing requirements and other restrictions, but as the borders re-opened holidaymakers came flocking back, desperate for sunshine and often flush with savings made during the lockdowns. The island has now fully recovered and has broken tourist records for two years running.

But things have changed. As tourists ventured back, they tended to favour models of tourism where the risks of infection were lower, avoiding hotels and staying in villas, for example, or hiring cars rather than taking coach excursions.

The internet and social media had also become a hugely important tool during the pandemic meaning that tourists are more adventurous and independent, less easy to control and herd around. The pressures can be seen in many parts of the island that were previously little visited.

Several businesses failed during the pandemic, while remote working and virtual meetings have become standard for those remaining. Meanwhile, children suffered to a much greater extent than many adults, – unthreatened by the virus themselves, they were forced into mask wearing, quarantines and social distancing for well over a year.

The final toll of Covid on Lanzarote and the Canaries is unknown. The virus is now endemic, and like the flu, still claims occasional victims, but the total of Covid-related deaths on the island was over 75 by the time the “new normal” returned.

Physically, lingering signs of the pandemic are few – a few shops and businesses still have plastic screens up, or you may see tattered tape on the floors to mark out social distancing. But the psychological effects of the pandemic will take much longer to go away.