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'Phase change' requests for next week: Which regions want more freedom
27/05/2020
ALL OF Spain has been on either 'Phase 1' or 'Phase 2' of 'unlocking' since Monday (May 25), and a handful are hoping to progress even further a week on.
Not every region is seeking to open up more, preferring to remain in their current 'phase' for at least another seven days until they are absolutely sure the pandemic is sufficiently under control in all their area health departments.
At the moment, all the offshore territories – the Balearic and Canary Islands and the autonomously-governed cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern Moroccan coast – plus the entire regions of Asturias, Galicia, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Navarra, La Rioja, Aragón, Extremadura and Murcia are all on 'Phase 2', meaning bars and restaurants can allow customers inside, although only up to 30% of their usual maximum, shops of any size can open, and residents in coastal parts can go to the beach.
The whole of Andalucía, in the south, is on 'Phase 2' except the provinces of Málaga and Granada, which remain on 'Phase 1', as does the whole of Castilla y León and the Greater Madrid region, and Castilla-La Mancha except for the provinces of Guadalajara and Cuenca, which are on 'Phase 2'.
On the east coast, the Comunidad Valenciana opted last week not to request a move to 'Phase 2', even though data from other parts of the country show it probably would have been given licence to do so.
Here, 10 out of 24 hospital catchment areas had already been on 'Phase 1' for a fortnight, which is the standard time frame the government wants each 'Phase' to continue for, whilst the remaining 14 had only been on 'Phase 1' for a week.
Regional health minister Ana Barceló wanted these 14 health departments to have been on 'Phase 1' for two weeks before moving forward, but did not request a switch to 'Phase 2' for the others, preferring the region to reopen en bloc rather than in 'patches'.
This did not please many in more rural areas and in towns with only a negligible incidence of Covid-19 – especially bar owners and customers with limited or no outside space, who had been expecting May 25 to bring a start to 'Phase 2' and their long-awaited reopening for business.
But the wider Valencia metropolitan area and its 'home counties', as well as the densely-populated Marina Baixa district – which includes Benidorm – agreed with Sra Barceló's cautious approach and considered an extra week to be a small price to pay to ensure infection rates dropped.
In some areas of the Comunidad Valenciana – such as the Marina Alta (Dénia and district), La Safor (Gandia and district) and the Vall d'Albaida and La Costera, covered by the hospitals in Xàtiva and Ontinyent, plus Torrevieja and Orihuela (southern Alicante province) and Vinaròs (northern Castellón province) – the number of new cases of Covid-19 reported in the two weeks since 'Phase 1' started ranged from 10 to 50, and most of these had had no deaths in days, or now, in weeks.
Their intensive care units are now largely Coronavirus-free, and in the Marina Alta, 71 of the 73 medical workers infected have fully recovered with the remaining two in quarantine at home rather than in hospital.
For this reason, regional president Ximo Puig has applied for the entire region to move to 'Phase 2' from Monday, and Sra Barceló says the data are 'positive', albeit 'not static', with information being shared daily and the health services 'now fully prepared' for more opening up.
Andalucía also wants to be entirely on 'Phase 2' and has applied for the switch for its worst-hit provinces of Granada and Málaga, but also wants movement between provinces on the same 'Phase' to be agreed – even though this is not due to be permitted until the whole country has come through 'Phase 3'.
In Andalucía, as in Valencia, some of the problem is that tourism hotspots and densely-populated coastal areas spill across provincial borders, leading to a bizarre situation where a person can legal travel 100-plus kilometres in one direction, but not five kilometres in the other.
Likewise, Castilla-La Mancha wants the whole region on the same 'Phase', and has requested that the provinces of Toledo, Albacete and Ciudad Real join Guadalajara and Cuenca on 'Phase 2'.
Catalunya is another case of 'split phases': The only complete province currently on 'Phase 2' is Tarragona, whilst part of that of Lleida is, but its hospital catchment areas of Alt Pirineu and the Arán Valley remain on 'Phase 1', as does the whole of the provinces of Barcelona and Girona.
Until Monday, the Barcelona metropolitan area and its wider districts, which make up three separate area health departments, were on 'Phase 0', and Catalunya's regional government wants these three to be combined into one for the purposes of deciding 'Phases' – its health authority technical committee says this would be feasible, as they have all shown a 'very similar epidemiological development'.
This would mean people could travel between the different towns in the three health departments rather than being limited to those within their own.
Catalunya's regional government wants to keep the province of Lleida and the three Barcelona metropolitan catchment areas on 'Phase 1', but for the province of Girona and the health departments of Alt Penedès and El Garraf (Barcelona province) to join Tarragona on 'Phase 2'.
Castilla y León's health minister Verónica Casado says the current 'Phase 1' offers 'enough freedom for now' to prevent problems with the economy through businesses not being able to open, and wants to keep the region where it is – especially as nearly two-thirds only moved from 'Phase 0' on Monday – but wants the area health departments of El Bierzo and Laciana, in the province of León, to switch to 'Phase 2' since it has 'sufficient health, social and economic resources' to avoid putting the population at risk by greater movement.
The Greater Madrid region, whose leaders were furious at having to stay an extra week on 'Phase 0' – but whose health service was relieved – moved to 'Phase 1' on Monday, May 25 and wants to stay on it for at least another week, particularly given that this was the worst-hit area in all of Spain with the Covid-19 outbreak, although it has applied to incorporate 'some aspects' of 'Phase 2' and 'Phase 3', such as being able to open shopping centres and for students in the upper sixth to be able to return to class to prepare for their forthcoming exams, rather than studying entirely online.
Mostly, the rest of the country is happy to stay on 'Phase 2' for another week, but some have asked to move forward either in full or in part: Aragón wants rural areas to be able to speed up their recovery and switching to 'Phase 3', given that the sparsely-populated areas are unlikely to see much of a spread even if the infection was still present; however, it does not intend to request 'Phase 3' for the entire region until Monday, June 8.
Cantabria and Galicia do not intend to request a move to 'Phase 3' – the former says that although the pandemic is 'under control' in the region, it 'has not disappeared' because there are 'still new cases every day and people out there who are infected'; and the latter wants movement between provinces 'with a similar epidemiological situation' to be allowed whilst remaining on 'Phase 2'.
Melilla does not want to apply for 'Phase 3' yet, saying 'nobody wants to rush into things', especially as it has only been on 'Phase 2' for three days so far – even though it has no active cases of Covid-19, has not done for the last five days, and has only seen two fatalities.
Ceuta, which has had four deaths in total, has similarly opted to stay on 'Phase 2' for at least another week.
Since the 'Phases' were first introduces, the Canarian islands of La Gomera, La Graciosa and El Hierro and the Balearic island of Formentera have been ahead of the rest of the country – moving straight to 'Phase 1' when the remainder of Spain was on 'Phase 0', and switching to 'Phase 2' when most of the other regions were moved to 'Phase 1'.
This was not the case when over half the mainland was moved to 'Phase 2' on May 25, however – the four small islands remained on the same 'Phase'.
The Balearic regional government now wants all four of its islands – Formentera, Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca – to move to 'Phase 3' from Monday, and the Canarian regional government wants La Graciosa, El Hierro and La Gomera to switch to 'Phase 3'.
A report from the Canarian regional health ministry shows no new cases of Covid-19 have been detected in all the time they have been on 'Phase 1' and 'Phase 2'.
The aim of Spain's national government is that all four 'Phases', from 0 to 3, will have been completed by July 1 and the country can look forward to a 'new normality'.
Related Topics
ALL OF Spain has been on either 'Phase 1' or 'Phase 2' of 'unlocking' since Monday (May 25), and a handful are hoping to progress even further a week on.
Not every region is seeking to open up more, preferring to remain in their current 'phase' for at least another seven days until they are absolutely sure the pandemic is sufficiently under control in all their area health departments.
At the moment, all the offshore territories – the Balearic and Canary Islands and the autonomously-governed cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern Moroccan coast – plus the entire regions of Asturias, Galicia, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Navarra, La Rioja, Aragón, Extremadura and Murcia are all on 'Phase 2', meaning bars and restaurants can allow customers inside, although only up to 30% of their usual maximum, shops of any size can open, and residents in coastal parts can go to the beach.
The whole of Andalucía, in the south, is on 'Phase 2' except the provinces of Málaga and Granada, which remain on 'Phase 1', as does the whole of Castilla y León and the Greater Madrid region, and Castilla-La Mancha except for the provinces of Guadalajara and Cuenca, which are on 'Phase 2'.
On the east coast, the Comunidad Valenciana opted last week not to request a move to 'Phase 2', even though data from other parts of the country show it probably would have been given licence to do so.
Here, 10 out of 24 hospital catchment areas had already been on 'Phase 1' for a fortnight, which is the standard time frame the government wants each 'Phase' to continue for, whilst the remaining 14 had only been on 'Phase 1' for a week.
Regional health minister Ana Barceló wanted these 14 health departments to have been on 'Phase 1' for two weeks before moving forward, but did not request a switch to 'Phase 2' for the others, preferring the region to reopen en bloc rather than in 'patches'.
This did not please many in more rural areas and in towns with only a negligible incidence of Covid-19 – especially bar owners and customers with limited or no outside space, who had been expecting May 25 to bring a start to 'Phase 2' and their long-awaited reopening for business.
But the wider Valencia metropolitan area and its 'home counties', as well as the densely-populated Marina Baixa district – which includes Benidorm – agreed with Sra Barceló's cautious approach and considered an extra week to be a small price to pay to ensure infection rates dropped.
In some areas of the Comunidad Valenciana – such as the Marina Alta (Dénia and district), La Safor (Gandia and district) and the Vall d'Albaida and La Costera, covered by the hospitals in Xàtiva and Ontinyent, plus Torrevieja and Orihuela (southern Alicante province) and Vinaròs (northern Castellón province) – the number of new cases of Covid-19 reported in the two weeks since 'Phase 1' started ranged from 10 to 50, and most of these had had no deaths in days, or now, in weeks.
Their intensive care units are now largely Coronavirus-free, and in the Marina Alta, 71 of the 73 medical workers infected have fully recovered with the remaining two in quarantine at home rather than in hospital.
For this reason, regional president Ximo Puig has applied for the entire region to move to 'Phase 2' from Monday, and Sra Barceló says the data are 'positive', albeit 'not static', with information being shared daily and the health services 'now fully prepared' for more opening up.
Andalucía also wants to be entirely on 'Phase 2' and has applied for the switch for its worst-hit provinces of Granada and Málaga, but also wants movement between provinces on the same 'Phase' to be agreed – even though this is not due to be permitted until the whole country has come through 'Phase 3'.
In Andalucía, as in Valencia, some of the problem is that tourism hotspots and densely-populated coastal areas spill across provincial borders, leading to a bizarre situation where a person can legal travel 100-plus kilometres in one direction, but not five kilometres in the other.
Likewise, Castilla-La Mancha wants the whole region on the same 'Phase', and has requested that the provinces of Toledo, Albacete and Ciudad Real join Guadalajara and Cuenca on 'Phase 2'.
Catalunya is another case of 'split phases': The only complete province currently on 'Phase 2' is Tarragona, whilst part of that of Lleida is, but its hospital catchment areas of Alt Pirineu and the Arán Valley remain on 'Phase 1', as does the whole of the provinces of Barcelona and Girona.
Until Monday, the Barcelona metropolitan area and its wider districts, which make up three separate area health departments, were on 'Phase 0', and Catalunya's regional government wants these three to be combined into one for the purposes of deciding 'Phases' – its health authority technical committee says this would be feasible, as they have all shown a 'very similar epidemiological development'.
This would mean people could travel between the different towns in the three health departments rather than being limited to those within their own.
Catalunya's regional government wants to keep the province of Lleida and the three Barcelona metropolitan catchment areas on 'Phase 1', but for the province of Girona and the health departments of Alt Penedès and El Garraf (Barcelona province) to join Tarragona on 'Phase 2'.
Castilla y León's health minister Verónica Casado says the current 'Phase 1' offers 'enough freedom for now' to prevent problems with the economy through businesses not being able to open, and wants to keep the region where it is – especially as nearly two-thirds only moved from 'Phase 0' on Monday – but wants the area health departments of El Bierzo and Laciana, in the province of León, to switch to 'Phase 2' since it has 'sufficient health, social and economic resources' to avoid putting the population at risk by greater movement.
The Greater Madrid region, whose leaders were furious at having to stay an extra week on 'Phase 0' – but whose health service was relieved – moved to 'Phase 1' on Monday, May 25 and wants to stay on it for at least another week, particularly given that this was the worst-hit area in all of Spain with the Covid-19 outbreak, although it has applied to incorporate 'some aspects' of 'Phase 2' and 'Phase 3', such as being able to open shopping centres and for students in the upper sixth to be able to return to class to prepare for their forthcoming exams, rather than studying entirely online.
Mostly, the rest of the country is happy to stay on 'Phase 2' for another week, but some have asked to move forward either in full or in part: Aragón wants rural areas to be able to speed up their recovery and switching to 'Phase 3', given that the sparsely-populated areas are unlikely to see much of a spread even if the infection was still present; however, it does not intend to request 'Phase 3' for the entire region until Monday, June 8.
Cantabria and Galicia do not intend to request a move to 'Phase 3' – the former says that although the pandemic is 'under control' in the region, it 'has not disappeared' because there are 'still new cases every day and people out there who are infected'; and the latter wants movement between provinces 'with a similar epidemiological situation' to be allowed whilst remaining on 'Phase 2'.
Melilla does not want to apply for 'Phase 3' yet, saying 'nobody wants to rush into things', especially as it has only been on 'Phase 2' for three days so far – even though it has no active cases of Covid-19, has not done for the last five days, and has only seen two fatalities.
Ceuta, which has had four deaths in total, has similarly opted to stay on 'Phase 2' for at least another week.
Since the 'Phases' were first introduces, the Canarian islands of La Gomera, La Graciosa and El Hierro and the Balearic island of Formentera have been ahead of the rest of the country – moving straight to 'Phase 1' when the remainder of Spain was on 'Phase 0', and switching to 'Phase 2' when most of the other regions were moved to 'Phase 1'.
This was not the case when over half the mainland was moved to 'Phase 2' on May 25, however – the four small islands remained on the same 'Phase'.
The Balearic regional government now wants all four of its islands – Formentera, Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca – to move to 'Phase 3' from Monday, and the Canarian regional government wants La Graciosa, El Hierro and La Gomera to switch to 'Phase 3'.
A report from the Canarian regional health ministry shows no new cases of Covid-19 have been detected in all the time they have been on 'Phase 1' and 'Phase 2'.
The aim of Spain's national government is that all four 'Phases', from 0 to 3, will have been completed by July 1 and the country can look forward to a 'new normality'.
Related Topics
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