Spain prepares severe restrictions for end-of-year celebrations; nightlife and hospitality will be affected

Spain will adopt more severe restrictions to try to stop the explosion of infections by the omicron variant of coronavirus with a view to the end of the year celebrations, which will fundamentally affect nightlife and hospitality and which will depend on the decision of each of the regional governments.

Six of these governments – those of the autonomous communities of Aragón, Navarra, the Basque Country, La Rioja, Cantabria and Asturias -, bordering each other, have already agreed on schedule and diner limitations in those sectors to stop the increase in positive cases and avoid mobility between one and the other.

According to the latest official data published last Thursday, before the festivities of Christmas Eve and Christmas, the cumulative incidence of coronavirus in Spain reached 791 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days, a period in which 371,772 new infections were reported.

In total, the country adds 5,718,007 covid-19 infections since the start of the pandemic and 89,019 deaths.

In accordance with what has been agreed by the six autonomous communities, which may vary a minimum according to the legislation in force in each of them, as of Wednesday the hospitality establishments of all of them will close at midnight and the nightlife establishments at 02.00 hours local until January 15.

In both cases, the number of diners will be limited to ten people per table and it will not be possible to consume standing up, the regional government of Aragon reported this Monday.

In the community of Madrid, the regional authorities also chose to prohibit the macro-parties planned for this end of the year, which envisaged capacity of between 500 and 1,000 people, given the complicated health situation, with an incidence of more than 1,100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

ONE YEAR FROM THE FIRST VACCINE

In an appearance before the media during a visit to the island of La Palma, the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, again pointed to vaccination as a strategy against the pandemic, which marks one year in Spain today.

Since then, 37,832,328 citizens out of a total of 47 million have received the full course of the vaccine, approximately 90% of the population.

Sánchez also referred to the consequences of the omicron variant of coronavirus and recalled that, according to science, it is highly contagious but its severity is less, which is reflected in the number of hospitalizations and admissions to intensive care units, very different from the first waves of the pandemic.