"I would like to inform you that the Government will adopt an extraordinary measure in the Council of Ministers: All non-essential activities staff will have to stay at home for the next two weeks," said Sanchez at a hearing in the Moncloa.

The President explained that this measure, which will be extended until at least 9 April, will involve a "paid leave" which will apply to "all workers in non-essential activities". "In these days, workers will receive their wages normally and will gradually and over time recover unallocated working hours," he added. As Government sources have explained, this permit will be paid by companies and the hours currently lost will have to be recovered at a later date.

Sánchez, who has so far refused to completely paralyse his activity, as requested by some autonomous governments and political groups, arguing that the Spanish State had adopted the "strictest" measures of neighbouring countries. That makes a decision "so firm and so hard" for the closeness of Easter.

"Instead of closing, the idea we have proposed is to bring forward those holidays so that non-essential service staff can access that permission that can be recovered. Now we do it because we are at the gates of Easter and we can cut the contacts in a more aggressive way and, consequently, also hospital admissions and pressure on ICUs," said the president.

The aim of the measure is therefore to tighten the containment, to help reduce the number of infections and, consequently, to help the health system not to collapse. The Spanish Government Director of Emergency Services, Fernando Simon, explained on Saturday that the most serious situation in hospital ICUs will occur after the summit.