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Spain Allowing Some Workers to Return to Jobs

VOA News

   Spain is loosening some of its coronavirus restrictions Monday
   withworkers in the manufacturing and construction sectors allowed to go
   back to work.

   With the threat of spreading the virus still present, companies are
   required to provide employees with protective equipment and make sure
   they maintain the recommended two meters of spacing from other workers.

   Spain has been one of the hardest-hit countries with more than 165,000
   confirmed cases and 17,000 deaths. Much of the country has been on
   lockdown for about a month.

   Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Sunday the pandemic is a threatnot
   onlyin terms of its impacts on health, but also economically and
   socially.

   "Therefore, the response requires combining measures that prevent
   contagion, that allow the recovery of our health system and that at the
   same time prevent paralysis and the collapse of our economy with the
   harmful effects it may have on employment in our country," Sanchez
   said.

   The balance between how long to keep in place stay-at-home measures and
   when to send people back to work to restore economic function is one
   being weighed by governments all over the world.

   South Korea's Prime Minister ChungSye-kyunsaid Monday officials were
   discussing potential new guidelines that would keep in place social
   distancingrules whileallowingsome "economic and social activity."

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