- Region
- Águilas
- Alhama de Murcia
- Jumilla
- Lorca
- Los Alcázares
- Mazarrón
- San Javier
-
ALL AREAS & TOWNS
- AREAS
- SOUTH WEST
- MAR MENOR
- MURCIA CITY & CENTRAL
- NORTH & NORTH WEST
- TOWNS
- Abanilla
- Abarán
- Aguilas
- Alamillo
- Alcantarilla
- Aledo
- Alhama de Murcia
- Archena
- Balsicas
- Blanca
- Bolnuevo
- Bullas
- Cañadas del Romero
- Cabo de Palos
- Calasparra
- Camping Bolnuevo
- Campo De Ricote
- Camposol
- Canada De La Lena
- Caravaca de la Cruz
- Cartagena
- Cehegin
- Ceuti
- Cieza
- Condado de Alhama
- Corvera
- Costa Cálida
- Cuevas De Almanzora
- Cuevas de Reyllo
- El Carmoli
- El Mojon
- El Molino (Puerto Lumbreras)
- El Pareton / Cantareros
- El Raso
- El Valle Golf Resort
- Fortuna
- Fuente Alamo
- Hacienda del Alamo Golf Resort
- Hacienda Riquelme Golf Resort
- Isla Plana
- Islas Menores & Mar de Cristal
- Jumilla
- La Azohia
- La Charca
- La Manga Club
- La Manga del Mar Menor
- La Pinilla
- La Puebla
- La Torre
- La Torre Golf Resort
- La Unión
- Las Palas
- Las Ramblas
- Las Ramblas Golf
- Las Torres de Cotillas
- Leiva
- Librilla
- Lo Pagan
- Lo Santiago
- Lorca
- Lorquí
- Los Alcázares
- Los Balcones
- Los Belones
- Los Canovas
- Los Nietos
- Los Perez (Tallante)
- Los Urrutias
- Los Ventorrillos
- Mar De Cristal
- Mar Menor
- Mar Menor Golf Resort
- Mazarrón
- Mazarrón Country Club
- Molina de Segura
- Moratalla
- Mula
- Murcia City
- Murcia Property
- Pareton
- Peraleja Golf Resort
- Perin
- Pilar de la Horadada
- Pinar de Campoverde
- Pinoso
- Playa Honda
- Playa Honda / Playa Paraíso
- Pliego
- Portmán
- Pozo Estrecho
- Puerto de Mazarrón
- Puerto Lumbreras
- Puntas De Calnegre
- Region of Murcia
- Ricote
- Roda Golf Resort
- Roldan
- Roldan and Lo Ferro
- San Javier
- San Pedro del Pinatar
- Santiago de la Ribera
- Sierra Espuña
- Sucina
- Tallante
- Terrazas de la Torre Golf Resort
- Torre Pacheco
- Totana
- What's On Weekly Bulletin
- Yecla
- EDITIONS: Spanish News Today Alicante Today Andalucia Today
ARCHIVED - Thousands of Murcians are moving around at weekends and breaking covid mobility restrictions
Big Brother is watching; people don´t realise that their mobile phone signal shows where they are at any given moment and this data is being gathered by the National Statistics Institute
The number of coronavirus cases reported in the Murcia Region is descending at an impressive rate thanks to the restrictions which have been imposed by the regional government, amongst them one restriction on crossing between municipal boundaries and another the closure of bars and restaurants.
But lack of police resources means that for the main part, residents are not actually being manually restrained from moving between municipalities, the net result being that whilst most of us are complying with the rules and “playing ball”, a large number of people are engaging in “border hopping”, and since bars and restaurants have been allowed to open in some municipalities and not in others, a great deal more “border hopping” has been going on, as residents cross between municipalities to enjoy a beer in a neighbouring municipality.
Now how do the authorities know for example, that last Sunday almost a thousand people travelled into the coastal municipality of Mazarrón from Totana, Cartagena and Lorca, or that 218 people from Bullas and 118 people from Alhama de Murcia went to Mula and Pliego, to which a total of 970 people travelled from other municipalities?
Or that hundreds of Murcian residents from Abanilla, Santomera, Fortuna, Murcia and Beniel, crossed the borders into Alicante, or 300 people from Yecla and Jumilla went to Orihuela, or Villena was the destination for more than a hundred people from Yecla?.
Because their mobile phones recorded every movement and this data was gathered by the National Institute of Statistics and compiled into a report which is published twice weekly.
The study on mobility during the period July-December 2020 is the third analysis carried out by the National Institute of Statistics, which offers, and will offer data, every Wednesday and Sunday during the period between June 24th and December 30th, 2020. The study on mobility began before the pandemic at the beginning of the year and aimed to analyse how much the population of the country actually moves around, and has become extremely important to help the regional governments manage the pandemic, and have access to information about how many people are breaching the regulations which have been established.The project was initiated in agreement with the mobile phone companies, and although the INE has access to data about the number of movements, it is not aware of the identity of the individuals concerned.
The data is updated during the week and at weekends.
The data shows for example, that on Wednesday, November 18th, 17% of all Murcian residents were on the move and travelled between municipalities, a mobility which is accounted for by the need to travel for work purposes.
At the weekend, mobility is generally less related to labour and more orientated towards leisure and one in ten Murcians made a weekend trip between different areas of residence or municipalities.
Some of this movement can obviously be related to labour, but the total movement recorded at weekends has only dropped by three points since the restriction of movement between municipalities was introduced and across the last three weekends the amount of movement has been steadily increasing, as the population realises that for the main part, it can get away with breaking the restrictions without being detected.
Now that bars and restaurants are open in 40 municipalities, there is less reason for people desperate for a drink and something to eat to leave their home municipalities, but the fact that bars and restaurants in many coastal locations are now open is also a temptation for those who fancy a drive down to the coast on a sunny day.
And for some of us, the knowledge that thousands of other people are ignoring the restrictions and crossing borders, may prompt a lapsing in conscientious behaviour and the taking of a decision to pop down to the local market just a couple of kilometres away just over the border in another municipality instead of having to drive nearly 20 kilometers to abide by the rules and shop in the home municipality.
The regional government of Murcia is now considering whether to remove the restrictions on crossing of internal municipal borders on 9th December when the current batch of restrictions expires.
Obviously it all depends on whether the number of cases appears to be coming down or not, and whether the regional government considers that the restriction on movement is helping to drive down the number of infections, but with the festive season ahead, there are inevitably significant concerns that there will be an increased number of contacts and another surge in new cases in January.
However, it does seem total overkill that we are now allowed to sit in a bar as part of a group of six people, but are not allowed to drive over an invisible border and spend some money in the beleagured retail businesses of the region just because they are geographically in another municipality.
The biggest risk the regional government is taking is that instead of being allowed to go and spend our money in the shops and businesses of this region, that we will spend it all online instead and the businesses will lose our money.
Hopefully good sense will prevail and we’ll be allowed to shop where we want to, but remember if you do decide to border hop, that Big Brother is watching, and the INE knows full well that you slid across the border from San Javier for a crafty beer in San Pedro del Pinatar at 12:22 exactly on Sunday lunchtime!
Cartagena
El Carmoli
Islas Menores and Mar de Cristal
La Manga Club
La Manga del Mar Menor
La Puebla
La Torre Golf Resort
La Union
Los Alcazares
Los Belones
Los Nietos
Los Urrutias
Mar Menor Golf Resort
Pilar de la Horadada
Playa Honda / Playa Paraiso
Portman
Roldan and Lo Ferro
San Javier
San Pedro del Pinatar
Santa Rosalia Lake and Life resort
Terrazas de la Torre Golf Resort
Torre Pacheco
Aledo
Alhama de Murcia
Bolnuevo
Camposol
Condado de Alhama
Fuente Alamo
Hacienda del Alamo Golf Resort
Lorca
Mazarron
Puerto de Mazarron
Puerto Lumbreras
Sierra Espuna
Totana
Abaran
Alcantarilla
Archena
Blanca
Corvera
El Valle Golf Resort
Hacienda Riquelme Golf Resort
Lorqui
Molina de Segura
Mosa Trajectum
Murcia City
Peraleja Golf Resort
Ricote
Sucina
Condado de Alhama
El Valle Golf Resort
Hacienda del Alamo Golf Resort
Hacienda Riquelme Golf Resort
Islas Menores and Mar de Cristal
La Manga Club
La Torre Golf Resort
Mar Menor Golf Resort
Mazarron Country Club
Mosa Trajectum
Peraleja Golf Resort
Santa Rosalia Lake and Life resort
Terrazas de la Torre Golf Resort
La Zenia
Lomas de Cabo Roig
CAMPOSOL TODAY Whats OnCartagena SpainCoronavirusCorvera Airport MurciaMurcia Gota Fria 2019Murcia property news generic threadWeekly Bulletin