ARCHIVED - Spain considers closing bar and restaurant interiors if Covid incidence rates rise over 150

Various ways of tightening and standardising restrictions are under debate as the threat of a fourth wave looms

Spain’s Public Health Committee is meeting on Thursday to discuss possible modifications to the coronavirus response guidelines with the intention of unifying the criteria governing all 17 regions of the country, with the changes considered including a proposal to ban customers from the inside of bars and restaurants if and when 14-day incidence rates rise above 150 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

If this measure were in place at present it would affect the regions of Asturias, Cataluña, Madrid, Navarra, the Basque Country, Ceuta and Melilla.

The guidelines as they stand at present were introduced on 22^nd October, shortly before the peak of the second wave of Covid infections which seemed disastrous at the time but which was later dwarfed by the third wave in January. Now that the threat of a fourth wave is growing, the Ministry of Health intends to tighten up the ways in which regional governments are required to respond to the data, but even if the new proposal is adopted it appears unlikely it will be implemented before Easter Week begins this weekend.

The current regulations state that at alert level 3, with incidence rates of between 150 and 250, regional health services should consider whether to close indoor areas of bars and restaurants, rather than enforcing the closure.

Also being debated is a proposal that bars and restaurants should be closed altogether except for takeaway orders at incidence rates of over 500, a situation which among Spanish regions currently affects only the north African enclave of Melilla, and at the same time consideration is being given to the possibility of establishing the maximum number of people allowed to meet in outdoor areas at 4 when incidence rates climb above 150.

In addition, a draft document stipulates a 50 per cent occupation limit on outdoor bar and restaurant terraces, and the postponement of weddings, baptisms and communions at incidence rates of over 250.

Although the need to protect the public and try to limit the continued spread of the virus is paramount, the situation for many businesses is now becoming desperate. The stop-start routine of the last year has left business owners facing difficult decisions, after being forced to close premises, partially re-open them, close them again, etc etc with the uncertainty continuing as the waves of the virus rise and fall. In some cases staff are being shed altogether after being furloughed for months, some businesses are closing down, others are struggling on, the future depending on whether premises are owned directly by the business owner or leased.

And the future remains uncertain, particularly for those in coastal regions that depend on the tourist trade and can´t say for certain at the moment whether there will even be a summer season or not.

The government is trying to avoid paying direct aid to business owners as there are so many affected, and is offering aid through re-financing schemes, and local or regional government schemes, but the situation is still dire and the prospect of significant job losses in the sector looms over these plans, as virologists insist that the hostelry sector is a major source of contagions.

As of last night the incidence rate in Spain over 14 days stood at 132.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and has been rising gradually for the last week. The data made public on Wednesday evening also showed that the figures rose in 15 of the country’s 17 regions. Only Andalucía (-0.6 per cent) and Aragón (-1.3 per cent) were exempt from the general trend, with the sharpest rises reported during the last 24 hours in Navarra (11.3 per cent), the Balearics (where a 9.5 per cent rise took the islands out of the “low risk” zone) and La Rioja (8.9 per cent).

The highest incidence rates among the regions are those reported in Madrid (228), the Basque Country (199.5) and Navarra (185.3), although in the north African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla the data are even more worrying with figures of 254 and 511 respectively.

At the same time, the total of 7,026 cases reported on Wednesday is the highest for a single day so far this month, while the addition of 320 fatalities takes the official Covid death toll in Spain to 74,064 since the first wave of the pandemic early last year.

It goes without saying that the country is hardly prepared for another wave of infection of the magnitude of the surge in January, with hospitals still struggling to cope with the large numbers of coronavirus patients in long-term intensive care. The proportion of all hospital beds occupied by Covid patients has dropped to 6.24 per cent, according to the latest data, but in intensive care units coronavirus still accounts for 18.6 per cent of all patients and in Madrid, La Rioja and Catalunya the figure is well above 30 per cent.

On Wednesday evening the health authorities of the country voted to maintain the current restrictions in place for Semana Santa and intensify the roadblocks attempting to prevent inter-regional travel, hoping that the public understands the high probability of a fourth wave should they fail to respect the restrictions imposed, which aim to give a good deal of freedom and enable businesses to remain open.