- Title: Madrid breathes fresh air amid coronavirus lockdown
- Date: 5th April 2020
- Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (FILE) (REUTERS) CARS PASSING BY COLON SQUARE
- Embargoed: 19th April 2020 10:31
- Keywords: COVID-19 Madrid Spain air air quality cars coronavirus lockdown pollution traffic
- Location: MADRID, SPAIN
- City: MADRID, SPAIN
- Country: Spain
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA00GC87RQYV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Air pollution has decreased in Madrid during lockdown to combat the coronavirus, showing on Saturday (April 4) a cleaned skyline of the Spanish capital after three weeks of isolation.
Madrid has curbed road transport - the largest source of nitrogen oxides - and slowed output at gas-emitting factories since March 14, when Spanish government approved an initial 15-day period of lockdown, now extended till April 12.
Cities including Brussels, Paris, Madrid, Milan and Frankfurt showed a reduction in average levels of noxious nitrogen dioxide over March 5-25, compared with the same period last year, according to the Sentinel-5 satellite images.
The new images, released by the European Space Agency (ESA) and analysed by the non-profit European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), show the changing density of nitrogen dioxide, which can cause respiratory problems and cancer, like heat maps.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday he will ask parliament to extend lockdown measures by 15 more days until midnight April 25 as the daily pace of new coronavirus infections and deaths slowed again in one of the world's most hard-hit countries.
Air pollution causes around 400,000 premature deaths each year in Europe, EEA data show.
(Production: Michael Gore, Elena Rodriguez) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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