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What are Catalonia’s new Covid-19 restrictions?

The Catalan authorities have announced new Covid-19 restrictions, from January 7th, that will last for 10 days.

Published: 4 January 2021 17:31 CET
What are Catalonia's new Covid-19 restrictions?
Image: Lluis Gene / AFP

The Catalan Regional Health Minister Alba Vergés announced the new restrictions at a press conference on January 4th. Here’s what you need to know.

  • Borders of each municipality will be closed every day of the week. Currently, they are only closed on weekends. Movement is not allowed to visit second homes or to visit family, unless they specifically need care and attention.
     
  • Meetings are still limited to six people at a time, except on Wednesday January 6th, Three Kings’ Day, when a maximum of 10 will be allowed from two different cohabiting bubbles.
     
  • Shopping centres will have to close once again and only stores of less than 400 meters squared, apart from essential ones, will be allowed to open during those 10 days. All stores, apart from essential ones will also have to close at weekends.
  • Physical activity will only be allowed outdoors, which means all gyms are also to close once again.
     
  • The curfew remains in force from 10pm to 6am.
     
  • Restaurants, bars and cafes will also remain unchanged with opening hours only allowed for breakfast between 7.30am and 9.30am and for lunch between 1pm and 3.30pm. Dinners are only allowed for takeaway.
     
  • Leisure and cultural venues will also remain at 50 percent capacity.

Read also: The new Covid-19 restrictions for Three Kings' Day across Spain

“We have to further reduce social interaction because the virus will not let up,” said Vergés. “We must stop the upward trend in figures,” she continued “which forces new social restrictions for 10 days”.

The accumulated incidence rate in Catalonia over the last 14 days has been more than 400 and pressure on hospitals has increased by 27 percent.  

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POLITICS

Socialist win in Catalan election ‘ends decade of division’: Spain’s PM

Spain's leader Pedro Sánchez said Thursday his Socialist party's success in the Catalan elections ended a "decade of division" in the wealthy northeastern region, long governed by separatists.

Published: 16 May 2024 17:16 CEST
Socialist win in Catalan election 'ends decade of division': Spain's PM

“The Catalan Socialist party’s victory… ends a decade of division and resentment within Catalan society and will doubtlessly open a new era of understanding and coexistence,” the prime minister said in his first remarks since Sunday’s election.

The Socialists coming top in the vote was a blow for the Catalan separatist parties which lost their governing majority in the region’s parliament that they have dominated for the past decade.

Since becoming premier some nine months after the botched independence bid of October 2017, Sánchez has adopted a policy of “reengagement” with the wealthy northeastern region to “heal the wounds” opened by the crisis.

In 2021, he pardoned the separatists jailed over the secession bid and has pushed through an amnesty bill for those still wanted by the justice system in exchange for key separatist backing that let him secure a new term in office.

That bill is due to become law in the coming weeks which will allow Carles Puigdemont – the Catalan leader who led the secession bid then fled Spain to avoid prosecution – to finally return home.

Despite Sunday’s result, in which the separatist parties secured 59 of the parliament’s 135 seats, Puigdemont – whose hardline JxCat party came second – said he would seek to build a ruling coalition.

READ MORE: Catalan separatist kingpin refuses to give up on ruling despite ‘pro-Spain win’

“We have an opportunity and we will make the most of it,” he said in the southern French town of Perpignan.

ERC, JxCat’s more moderate separatist rival, lost a lot of support in Sunday’s vote, triggering a crisis within the party.

Even so, it is likely to play a key role in Puigdemont’s coalition-building efforts as well as those of the Catalan Socialists, who won with 42 seats — also a long way from the 68 mandates required to rule.

Analysts say the most likely option would see the Socialists allying with the radical left party Comuns Sumar, which won six seats, and ERC, which won 20, giving it exactly 68.

READ ALSO: Which Catalans want independence from Spain?

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