Andalusia borders all its municipalities and closes non-essential activity from six in the afternoon

The 8.4 million inhabitants of Andalusia will be confined to their municipalities from next Tuesday until November 23.

The hotel industry and non-essential activity must close at six in the afternoon, except in the province of Granada, where due to the high incidence of the virus - 1,194 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days - the suspension is absolute, and the Curfew is brought forward at 22.00 (until 7 in the morning).

The growing hospital pressure has led the Junta de Andalucía to toughen the measures adopted 11 days ago, which also include the obligation to teach

classes

for community universities

This is what the regional president, Juan Manuel Moreno, has advanced this Sunday, who has advanced that throughout this week an aid plan will be approved to compensate for the losses to the hospitality and commerce sector, of which he has barely given details.

For 11 days, half of Andalusia (450 municipalities of the total of 785 that the community has and in which 4.3 million people live) lived confined.

The Andalusian Government also divided the region by risk levels based on the degree of incidence of the virus, where restrictions vary especially in terms of capacity in bars, ceremonies, wakes or sports activities.

Until now there were three phases: 4, 3 and 2. Moreno has advanced that the entire community is in four, except for a hundred municipalities that are in three.

On the page mapacovid.es you can check the phase of each location.

The Andalusian president has been against to apply immediately the house confinement.

Although Moreno has argued that with the current level of incidence Andalusia would not be in a position to apply it, it has demanded that the central government "already foresee the possibility of a total or partial confinement in the coming weeks."

The popular leader is in favor of running out of deadlines to see if the measures adopted are effective and giving himself a margin to try to maintain the fragile balance between health and economy.

"Controlling the pandemic is like a tap", he likes to say, in which if you open there is more mobility, more infections and more economic activity and if you close, quite the opposite.

This Sunday he decided to turn it a little more to the left.

The hospitality industry is one of the most important sectors of the community.

It contributes almost 6% of its GDP.

The decision to circumscribe the bulk of the restrictions to this area has not been well received by businessmen.

"It makes no sense to ask for sacrifices from the economic sectors if they are not accompanied by support measures later," the president of the Andalusian Businessmen Conference (CEA) warned Efe this Saturday.

Aware of this discomfort, the president has announced a rescue plan that will include "soft credits and direct aid and tax exemptions", although he has not specified the amount or its duration.

The Board has also requested the involvement of the Town Halls, Provincial Councils and the central Government.

From this week the autonomous Executive will meet with the representatives of the affected sectors to limit the aid.

These 11 days of restrictions have already claimed their first economic victims.

The emblematic Alfonso XIII hotel in Seville has announced its temporary closure.

In the province of Seville, the early closing at 6:00 p.m. can be the last straw for many places that have survived confinement during the spring - when bars and restaurants bill almost 80% of their total annual income - and have weathered as they could the month of August, the low season in the Andalusian capital.

"During the state of alarm, 500 establishments closed and another 1,500 have been limping, but with the early closure at 10:30 p.m. many have already had to lower the blind," says Antonio Luque, president of the Association of Hoteliers of the Province of Seville , which houses 8,500 of the 55,000 of the entire community.

Luque does not understand that they are demonized.

"In Catalonia the bars have been closed for more than 20 days and the curve has not gone down."

The Sevillian business, which has suffered a 65% drop in sales compared to last year, welcomes the decision with more resignation.

“This is not something only in Seville or Andalusia, it is being experienced throughout Spain and Europe.

What we need is a greater involvement of the Administrations, which until now have not forgiven the IBI or any other tax, "says Tomás González, president of the Provincial Confederation of Commerce and Services of Seville.

Granada, uncontrolled incidence

"The measures seem to be beginning to have containment effects, but it is not enough," Moreno has indicated regarding the limitations imposed 11 days ago.

However, in Granada they have barely had an impact, given the high numbers of contagion and hospital pressure.

The province accumulates 1,194 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and the capital has exceeded 1,300 positives in the last fortnight.

The head of the ICU at the Virgen de las Nieves Hospital, José Miguel Pérez Villares, warned this week that they were "on the verge of collapse."

Moreno explained that there are currently 1,595 free beds in that province.

The Board has closed all non-essential activity, which

supposes a total cessation of the economy in that province and the president has asked the people of Granada "not to leave at all if it is not strictly necessary."

"I appeal to the Board and the central government that for these municipalities that depend so much on tourism and that have been attacked by the measures that have had to be adopted that we apply special aid plans", said the mayor of Granada, Luis Salvador (Cs) after listening to Moreno.

"No one has contacted us to notify us of the measure," says Gregorio García, president of the Granada Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Companies.

"We do not know how the shock plan will be, but we do not believe anything, before announcing closures they have to come with a package of aid," he laments.

There are 5,000 catering establishments in the province.

"The annual turnover is usually 2,200 million and in this we already have losses of 1,300", García glosses.

"You have to wait a while, the effect will not be immediate, although the measures reduce the possibility of contagion there are many people who are already contagious and are contagious", explains Juan Pedro Arrebola, epidemiologist at the University of Granada (UGR), who also emphasizes the special characteristics of that city.

"It is eminently university, the UGR is very large in relation to the size of the population and that favors that there are many young people who have not been able to convey the risk of this disease and who do not have control", he indicates .

Granada was, until now, the only university in Andalusia that had been forced by the Junta to teach its classes exclusively 'online'.

All the others had adopted a system of blendedness.

The measure was adopted on October 13 to curb the runaway number of infections, although it was decided to keep the bars open.

The decision, which caused great discomfort in that institution, will be extended to the rest of the 10 Andalusian universities - nine public and one private - starting next Tuesday.

More than 260,000 students will be affected.

As this newspaper has been able to verify, this extension has not been previously communicated to the rectors.

Hospital pressure grows

Andalusia was one of the communities least affected during the first wave and one of the ones that took the longest to show the consequences of the second.

On October 16, its incidence was 227.26 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, below the average for Spain by 280.44.

The Andalusian government has presumed to anticipate the pandemic, but in recent weeks the number of infections has run wild.

Its incidence in the first week of November has risen 22%, compared to 8% for all the communities.

There is also an increase in hospital admissions, exceeding the highest peak reached during confinement, both in normal beds -3,151 compared to 2,708 on March 30- and in ICU -455, compared to 438 on March 31-.

In the first week of November, 315 people died from covid.

With the current evolution, with around 100 hospitalized a day, the 4,500 admitted will be surpassed in a few weeks, rendering obsolete the 4,500 plan approved this week by the Board in anticipation of reaching that number of coronavirus patients who need hospital care. .

Moreno himself has specified that "the room for maneuver is 20 days."

The initiative contemplates the medicalization of hostels, hotels and free time residences, but does not clarify with which personnel this care will be covered.

If the new restrictions do not take effect, Moreno will have little margin left, beyond demanding the establishment of home confinement, a measure that other experts are demanding to stop hospital pressure.

“All the measures that are adopted are going to be insufficient.

Other countries, with fewer cases, have taken more drastic measures, ”says Jesús Rodríguez Baño, head of the Infectious Diseases Service at the Virgen Macarena Hospital in Seville.

"We are in a problematic situation to attend to all types of patients, not only covid, and we have been late with the measures, throughout Spain, we have been told that we have reinforced ourselves in summer, but it has not been like that, it has been lacking screening capacity, tracking… ”, warns the epidemiologist.

Information about the coronavirus

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