Spanish justice gave the green light on Friday July 16 to the reestablishment of a curfew from this weekend and for at least a week in several major cities of Catalonia, including the very touristy Barcelona, when the number cases of Covid-19 infection are skyrocketing in the region.
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The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia has announced that it has approved the establishment of a curfew “
between 1 am and 6 am until July 23 in towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants whose incidence is greater than 400 cases. per 100,000 inhabitants over the last seven days
”.
The towns and villages which would be entirely or partially surrounded by municipalities meeting these criteria are also affected by this curfew, specifies the Court in its judgment, made public at midday in Barcelona.
Several dozen municipalities are thus affected by the measure, according to the list contained in the judgment.
An increase in contamination due to the Delta variant
For several days, the situation has been out of control in Catalonia due to the Delta variant: the incidence rate over the last 14 days has thus increased to 1,107 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the latest official data published on Thursday.
The situation is particularly alarming among the youngest, who were not eligible for vaccination until recently.
In this age group (20-29 years), incidence rates exceeded 3,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants last week.
Health measures have been increasing since Monday in an attempt to curb the transmission of the virus in this region of the northeast of the country.
The local authorities had already decided to close all nighttime activities at 12:30 a.m. and to limit meetings to 10 people in public and private spaces.
In the neighboring region of Valencia, to the south, the justice authorized Monday the establishment of a curfew between 1 and 6 a.m. in 32 cities, including Valencia, and the limitation of meetings to ten people throughout the region.
Navarre plans to present the same request on Monday to the Superior Court of Justice of this region in the north of the country.
Across Spain, more than 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants
If Catalonia is the region most affected by this explosion in the number of contagions, none is spared, since the incidence for all of Spain exceeded 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days on Thursday (501), i.e. a figure more than five times what it was two weeks ago (92), which gives an idea of the speed at which the virus is spreading.
In Spain, the impact of this new wave of contagion remains limited for the moment with regard to hospital occupancy, which is increasing "
slowly
", and lethality, which is not increasing thanks to the progress of the campaign. vaccination, the chief epidemiologist of the Ministry of Health, Fernando Simón, said on Monday.
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health released on Thursday, 60.6% of the approximately 47 million Spaniards have received at least one dose, while 48.4% are already fully vaccinated.
Unlike other European countries, which several weeks ago opened vaccination to young adults and adolescents, Spain applies a fairly rigid system, which began this winter with people over the age of 80 and gradually reached the 30-39 age group.
But with the arrival of summer and holidays, student parties in bars, nightclubs and apartments are multiplying, even though wearing a mask is no longer compulsory outdoors since June 26.
