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ARCHIVED - The Region of Valencia tightens restrictions and closes its borders for festive season
No travel into the region by road is permitted except for those returning to their registered place of residence or essential reasons
In response to the recent increases in coronavirus case numbers and incidence rates across Spain the regional government of the Comunidad Valenciana, which encompasses the provinces of Valencia, Alicante and Castellón, has announced a toughening of the limits on socialization and travel permitted over the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The new measures are due to come into force next Monday 21st December until 15th January, and the most important measure which will affect foreign nationals living in the region and those who had planned to visit friends, is the almost complete ban on travelling into and out of the region except in essential circumstances, such as those people who are returning to the municipalities in which they are officially registered as being resident; basically, if you're not on the padrón, then you shouldn´t be travelling into the region.
The previous plan for a relaxation of the measures designed to curb the spread of the pandemic over the festive season, which was issued only 12 days before these latest steps were announced on Thursday, had envisaged a more lenient approach in order to make family reunions feasible, allowing people in and out of the region to visit family members and other “nearest and dearest”.
Specifically, the previous plan had allowed for inter-regional family visits on 23rd, 24th, 25th and 31st December and 1st January, but such travel is now restricted to those returning to their registered place of residence (as well as cases such as those entering the region in order to catch flights at the airports of Alicante-Elche and Valencia).
This means that Spanish nationals living in other areas of Spain will not be permitted to visit friends and family within the three provinces of the Valencia Region.
For many residents this is a real inconvenience, as plans had already been made and laid for friends to visit from neighbouring regions such as Murcia, and these must now be cancelled.
There are implications for foreign nationals flying into Alicante airport to visit friends and family for the holiday season because of this, mainly because of the border restrictions.
Although PCR tests are required for foreign nationals to enter Spain, they are subject to the restrictions of each regional government in the region to which they are travelling, so although travellers are being admitted to Spain without any problems, as the regional governments are not allowed to close Schengen borders and cannot therefore limit movement internationally, ethically there is a question over whether anybody who is not returning to their place of habitual residence should be travelling at all in order to visit friends and family given the current covid situation.
The GVA helpline has confirmed verbally that the same covid regulations apply to those travelling to Spain as those living in it, but the local police say that they are not stopping international travellers if they are flying into the region simply for flying here.
They will only stop foreign nationals should they be in breach of covid regulations.
The problem area is when a passenger lands at Alicante and then has to go to a residence outside of the region in another region, ie Murcia or Andalucía, as both have perimeter border entry closures in place. There are certainly many people reporting that they are successfully reaching their holiday apartments without being stopped by police patrols anywhere, but the helpline advises that should someone be stopped crossing borders and be found to be travelling to an apartment and NOT be resident then they will be subject to the same sanctions as a Spanish national as regional rules apply.
Although there are no problems for those picking up and dropping-off family at the airport providing paperwork is prepared to prove that this is the purpose of the journey, particular care should be exercised when crossing over the border into the Region of Murcia, as the 50% occupancy limit for vehicles is still in place in the Murcia Region, and vehicles are being stopped by local police should the occupancy be more than 50% (3 people are allowed in a 5-seater vehicle but only 2 in a 4 seater.)
The border of the Murcia Region is closed for all but non-essential travel and visiting friends and family for Christmas is not considered essential, so be aware of that if planning to travel; the restriction goes both ways and there should be no travel across the border between Murcia and Alicante other than for essential reasons.
Obviously, this restriction also applies to residents of the Valencia Region travelling out of the region, so again, non-essential visits to outside of the region are not permitted.
At the moment there are no restrictions about travelling between provinces in the Valencia Region, but in Murcia there are still restrictions in a couple of municipalities, so be aware of local border exclusions if travelling to the Murcia Region from Alicante Airport.
At the same time, the 10-person limit which had been established for gatherings on 23rd to 25th December and New Year’s Eve has been reduced to 6 (“without exceptions” and belonging to a maximum of two households), while the start of the night-time curfew has been brought forward an hour to 23.00, the only exceptions being when people are allowed out until midnight on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
Explaining the reinforcement of the limits on travel, regional president Ximo Puig apologized for the pain and inconvenience caused to those who will no longer be allowed to see their relatives at Christmas. At the same time, though, he justified the decision with references to the recent upward trend in the number of cases reported in the Comunidad Valenciana, where the 14-day accumulated incidence rate has risen by 27 per cent over the last week and at least 2,000 new cases have been confirmed on each of the last four days.
All of these stricter rules are to remain in place at least until 15th January, but on the other hand the regional government has decided for the moment not to delay the start of the new school term, a move which has been considered in other parts of the country. Sr Puig stressed, however, that the situation of the pandemic varies rapidly, apparently not ruling out this and other options entirely.
Meanwhile, the regional president at least provided some grounds for optimism in underlining that the region of Valencia is ready to receive, store and distribute 600,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, although he cannot yet specify exactly when the first will arrive. Ultra-freezers are available and human resources have been allocated for the vaccination program, taking advantage of the experience gained while administering 1.2 million flu vaccines this autumn.
NOTE: it should be remembered that there are numerous other pandemic restrictions on activities throughout the region of Valencia, affecting bars, restaurants, shops and malls, sporting and other events, street markets and numerous other aspects of any “normal” festive season. Certain limited street parades are to be permitted including those of the Three Kings on 5th January, but only if access is limited, distancing protocols are enforced and Their Royal Highnesses are barred from throwing gifts out from their floats into the groups of spectators.(click for full info)
Certain tourism activities accompanied by a guide are permitted, with group sizes limited to 15 people in the open air and 10 indoors.
Those not normally resident in the region and visiting, should be aware that masks must be worn at all times when outside of a home environment, ie going shopping, going for a walk, and must be worn in cafés etc unless actually taking a mouthful of food or sipping a drink etc.
Click to see full info about restrictions across Spain
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