‘We are thinking of you’: Spain’s coronavirus lockdown sees people coming together and supporting vulnerable

‘I arrived at the supermarket and there was one elderly man. He was not the first to arrive but without debate, all rather naturally and without fuss, he was allowed to enter first’

A Spanish soldier helps a disabled woman with her shopping at a supermarket in Vigo, northwestern Spain (EPA)

Pedro Heredia regularly offers to do the shopping for two elderly neighbours in the block of flats where he lives in Marbella.

“They are in their eighties and live alone. They are classed as a high risk group whilst I am a bit younger at 39 so less of a risk, so I thought I would help them out,” he told The Independent.

This simple act of kindness by Mr Heredia, a psychologist, typifies the way Spaniards have come together at a time of national crisis to help each other out.

As the number of coronavirus cases in Spain veered close to 20,000 on Friday, the death toll was over 1,000.

The elderly have borne the brunt of the outbreak in Spain, accounting for a third of all deaths, with at least 80 dying in care homes.

Spaniards have tried to help the weakest in society by setting up volunteer groups to collect medicines and shopping for pensioners, especially those who live alone.

But when elderly people do venture out to go to the supermarket, they have been afforded special courtesy.

Alan Irvine, 48, a businessman who is originally from Glasgow but who lives in Bedar in Almeria, southern Spain, said: “I arrived at the supermarket and there was one elderly man. He was not the first to arrive but without debate, all rather naturally and without fuss, he was allowed to enter first. This was not done by staff but by those waiting.

“I think it reflects the respect for the elderly in Spain but also the general calm that everyone is applying to the situation.”

Police officers across Spain have taken to driving to hospitals to sound their alarms at 8pm each night in a salute to the health workers who risk their lives to treat patients.

They have joined a now nightly ritual in which tens of thousands of Spaniards step out onto their balconies to applaud doctors and nurses.

Spaniards are a normally gregarious people who live their lives outside in bars, restaurants and on the beaches.

However, since the state of emergency was imposed last Saturday, they have found a new stage: the balcony.

Here some have taken to performing a new unofficial national anthem.

Resistire, meaning I will resist, a saccharine hit for a Spanish group called Dynamic Duo in 1990, has been revived to sum up a national spirit of defiance.

A campaign has started in hospitals across Spain to send letters to lift the spirits of patients confined to isolation wards who are suffering from coronavirus.

Gema Gonzalez Jaraez, a technical assistant at the Henares Hospital in Madrid, said since the campaign began this week they have received more than 500 letters.

“They have come from all over the world. Children and adults have written to say they hope people feel better,” she said.

One letter which was sent to the hospital read:

“Hello, my name is Max and I am 10. I like football, basketball and wrestling. I am quite bored in quarantine but I would like you to know that we are thinking of you and you will get better soon.”