ARCHIVED - Two thirds of Valencia region towns Covid free for last 14 days

Sixty-five per cent of municipalities in the provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellon have had no active Covid cases for the last two weeks.

Some 351 of the 542 municipalities in the Valencia region - which has a population of 533,212 - have been Covid-free for the last 14 days, according to figures from the Regional Health Ministry.

And a further 130 towns have registered five or less new cases in the same period, almost a quarter of the total number of municipalities in the region, which has the lowest incidence rate in Spain.

While 61 municipalities (11.2 per cent of the total) have recorded six or more positives.

"The fact that more than half of the municipalities are free of Covid is an encouraging fact, a sign that measures in the Valencian Community are working well", according to the health ministry, which added that "the immunisation of the entire region's population is getting closer and closer".

By province, of the 351 municipalities that have not had any Covid cases in the last two weeks, 78 are in Alicante, 170 in Valencia and 103 in Castellón.

Of those with five cases or less, 44 municipalities are in the province of Alicante, 63 in Valencia and 23 in Castellón.

While the bulk of the 61 municipalities with six cases or more are in Valencia province (33), with 19 in Alicante and 23 in Castellon.

The figures have been released days ahead of the lifting of restrictions in the region on the Costa Blanca.

After seven months, freedom of movement is being restored across the Valencia region from next week, there will no limits of family and social gatherings and bars, restaurants and nightlife venues will have extended opening hours.

And to ramp up the roll-out of the region's vaccine campaign as restrictions are eased, aeroplanes carrying shipments of the Pfizer vaccination will land at Manises Airport in Valencia on the Costa Blanca twice a week this month.

IMAGE: GVA Sanitat