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As from Thursday 29th April, movement between the eight provinces of Andalucía will be reinstated after more than three months. The curfew will continue to be in force between 11 PM and 6 AM; retail activity will also continue to be allowed until 10:30 PM, and the hospitality industry can now close at 11 PM.
Expectations have been met and the Junta de Andalucía will once again allow mobility between its 8 provinces as from this Thursday (29th April).
The president of the Junta de Andalucía Juanma Moreno had hinted to this good news earlier today on twitter. In his post he said that this April 27th is “an important and much awaited day for Andalusians. Hopefully, the data will allow this, and we can begin the gradual reopening that we have all been looking forward to. We and the Committee of Experts are analysing this. There is hope”.
At 6:30 this afternoon, Moreno chaired a meeting with the Advisory Council on High Impact Public Health Alerts and the Committee of Experts.
At 8:30, he held a press conference in which he finally announced some relaxations of restrictions, largely due to the fact that the “incidence rate” (similar to the R-rate) remains low, and, he said, because the vaccination campaign continues to progress.
So, as from Thursday 29th April, movement between the eight provinces of Andalucía will be reinstated after more than three months.
Of course, the Junta says that it will maintain the perimeter closure of the Autonomous Community, meaning that you can only leave Andalucía for an approved reason. The curfew will continue to be in force between 11 PM – 6 AM. Retail can remain open until 10:30 PM, and the hospitality industry until 11 PM.
As for gatherings, a maximum of 6 people can meet outdoors, and four inside.
Municipalities with a rate higher than 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants will be subjected to perimeter closures but not to changes in schedules.
Municipalities exceeding a rate of 1,000 (per 100,000 inhabitants) will be under a perimeter closure with only “essential” activities allowed.
As for the municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, Moreno said that a concrete risk assessment would be carried out in order to decide what measures will be implemented.
All these measures will take place as from 12 midnight on Wednesday going into Thursday.
“This is long awaited news. We have spent too many months not being able to see our loved ones and without being able to go to our second homes. This has also caused a great deal of sadness and longing for the past for many people, especially our elders”, the President of the Junta de Andalucía said.
Juanma Moreno opened his conference by recalling the fact that Andalucía continues to face the so-called “fourth wave” of Covid-19 and said that the potential effects are a worry.
“We opted for prudence again to maintain a balance between the protection of people’s health and employment. The main objective is to protect human life, but we do not want to suffocate the economy”, he said.
He said that the experts have now concluded that this “fourth wave” is much lighter than previous ones, and the rate in the Autonomous Community currently stands at 237 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and that Andalucía is now leading in terms of vaccines.
“Our autonomous community is where the most people live; almost 8.5 million inhabitants, of which almost 7 million have to be vaccinated. They are those over 16, what we call the target population. Over 2.5 million Andalusians have been vaccinated, and 737,052 have already completed the guideline. We have plenty of capacity to continue vaccinating and if there are if this slows down, it will be due to lack of doses”.
Moreno claimed that the vaccines are working and “the time has come to regain that long-awaited freedom”, although he added:
“We have progress using our common sense, maximum caution and the maximum measures possible to prevent infections by capacity limits, wearing masks and maintaining social distance. If we don’t, summer is at risk. The danger of infection continues to be out there, as well as the risk of becoming hospitalised and worse, losing your life to the virus”.
The new measures announced this Tuesday will be in force until the 9th of May, the date which the central government will remove the state of alarm status.
Campo de Gibraltar Data
The Ministry of Health and Families reported this Tuesday 1,464 confirmed patients with Cvoid-19 in hospitals in Andalucía, with 334 of these people in the ICU.
In the Campo de Gibraltar, all municipalities are below 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, with the only place being close to this number is Algeciras, with a rate of 96.
As for infections within the last 24 hours in the Campo de Gibraltar, there have only been 12 registered, of which 7 are in Algeciras, three in La Línea and two in Los Barrios. Fortunately, there have been no deaths “from” Covid in the past day.
