Date Published: 18/07/2020
ARCHIVED - Police instructed to start fining non-users of masks in several regions of Spain
ARCHIVED ARTICLE Let the fining begin say regional ministers!
Image; taken in Cartagena during lockdown by the city council. Great pic!
Last Saturday Cataluña enforced the mandatory wearing of masks in public places throughout the region, the move propelled by the growing number of Covid cases which forced the Generalitat to confine 207,000 people in a bid to contain the virus.
During the last week the number of new cases in Spain has started to increase abruptly, registering nearly 6,000 new cases in the last 7 days and every region of Spain except the Canary Islands and Madrid has introduced the compulsory use of masks in public areas, the only exceptions generally being when eating, drinking, practicing sport, bathing or on the beach for every person over the age of 6, excluding those with medical conditions which impede the breathing of those wearing of a mask.
As was the case with the lockdown, the authorities have allowed a “settling-in” period for the new legislation, police instructed to inform and educate, but from Saturday onwards the instructions are starting to change and the first regions have given clear orders to their police forces to start fining those who are not obeying the law.
Throughout the country the same 100 euro fine for non-compliance applies.
The regional governments of the Canary Islands, Asturias, Cataluña, and provincial governments of Sevilla and Granada in Andalucía are the first to embark on a fineathon.
The Government of the Canary Islands has instructed Canary Islands police, Policia Nacional, Policia Local and the Guardia Civíl to reinforce surveillance in bars, discos, or parties to ensure that attendees respect the use of the mask and in the case of non-compliance, start issuing fines of 100 euros.The Canary islands has not followed the rest of Spain by implementing a measure forcing the wearing of masks at all times in public, but has opted for the original measures agreed by the Spanish Government after lockdown which comprise wearing a mask inside public buildings and in situations where social distancing is not possible, and rather than opting for an overall enforcement of mask wearing has decided instead to rigidly enforce the former measure and sanction more stringently.
Other regions have decided to start fining based on the new measures; Asturias has given the green light for fines to be applied and has warned officers not to accept excuses which are outside of the established guidelines such as smoking; "The person who wants to smoke will have to stand in a place so that he does not mix with the rest of the people until he has finished," said Mario Suárez, inspector of the Avilés Local Police.
The Barcelona Urban Guard have been instructed to start fining; Deputy Mayor for Prevention and Security, Albert Batlle, warning on television that Barcelona will abandon the "information and accompaniment" phase and will move on to the "warning and correction phase and, if necessary, sanction "
Similar instructions are confirmed to have been given in Granada and Seville in the Andalucía region, with many other forces expected to follow suite in the next few days.
By Saturday the only regions of Spain not applying the mandatory wearing of masks at all times in public were Madrid and the Canary Islands, the Valencia region finally making its announcement on Saturday, with immediate effect.
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