Vestas has stopped almost all manufacturing at its two factories in Spain, a step already taken by rival Siemens Gamesa in the wake of stricter rules on the shutdown of the country’s economy to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Spain’s government Sunday night imposed a stoppage of all ‘non-essential’ economic activities until 9 April, a measure which was supposed to have started Monday but was then postponed by a day after taken many companies by surprise.

Vestas in a statement sent to Recharge said it will stop all manufacturing at its generator factory in Viveiro and its blade hall in Daimiel, barring those operations that either cannot stop or need to run to prepare the facilities for a fast ramp-up next month once the stoppage ends.

“All of these will continue to be performed under the extraordinary safety measures that were implemented since the beginning of the crisis in all sites to minimise the risk of contagion among our employees,” the company said.

As of early Tuesday afternoon, Spain had the world's second-highest casualty rate from Covid-19, as 8,189 people had died from the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to the database of Johns Hopkins University.

Through its crisis management setup, Vestas said it was already prepared to lock-down part of its activities and is ready to quickly restart operations on 10 April – or in keeping with the timeline established by the authorities.

Siemens Gamesa on Monday said it will shut five more production units in Spain, on top of two already closed earlier this month.

GE-owned LM Wind Power earlier in March had already halted work at two Spanish blade plants.