MADRID (Reuters) – Spain on Friday night ordered authorities to close and ban drinking on the streets in an effort to stop coronavirus resistance – measures that are causing anger and outrage in the hard-to-reach hairdressing sector.
PHILO PHOTO: People pictured at a bar amid outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, in Madrid, Spain, August 1, 2020. REUTERS / Javier Barbancho
Smoking in public places where a safe distance from people is impossible was also banned, Public Health Minister Salvador Illa told a news conference.
Bars and restaurants will have to close their sliding doors at 1 a.m. as part of the new restrictions, Illa said.
The minister also advised against meetings of more than 10 people and specifically warned young people not to gather outside to drink alcohol, a popular practice called “botellones”.
“We can not afford not to be disciplined,” Illa said. “We can not circulate the virus among us.”
The Ministry of Health said the closure was extended to nightlife institutes, including discos, cocktail bars and dance halls throughout Spanish territory, which include popular holiday islands and beach resorts that depend on tourism.
Infections in Spain have risen in recent days following the end of Spain’s tough lockdown seven weeks ago.
The nearly 3,000 new cases of Friday, though not much changed from Thursday, were nearly double the average in the first 12 days of August, bringing the cumulative total to 342,813 – the highest number in Western Europe.
German government sources told Reuters that the country was on the verge of declaring almost all of Spain, including the tourist island of Mallorca, a risk region of coronavirus, raising hopes of a rapid rise in mass tourism.
“They make night time a crime,” Ramon Mas, head of business association Espana de Noche, told radio station RNE.
He said his group planned to prosecute the government for what he sees as a violation of the law that endangers thousands of jobs.
“We are embarrassed and angry,” he said.
Some regions such as Galicia and the Canary Islands had earlier in the week curtailed smoking in public areas.
The increase in infections has caused the country to return to the grim situation it experienced in April when the daily death toll from COVID-19 approached 1,000, but Illa played down such concerns.
Official data show that 62 people have died in the past week, bringing Spain’s total death toll from coronavirus to 28,617.
“The situation is not comparable to March and April,” the minister said, noting that more young people were now infected, but patients were generally less seriously ill.
To curb the epidemic, authorities imported a whole of Spain into central Spain in mid-March that lasted until late June and all devastated the country’s tourist-dependent economy.
Still, many Spaniards embraced the new measures.
“There have been many outbreaks and if no action is taken, we will have to take action again,” said Graciela Espino in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.
Report by Inti Landauro and Isla Binnie; Edited by Andrei Khalip and Angus MacSwan
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