Comunidad Valenciana relaxes shop and bar restrictions and Portugal reopens to Spain

THE BORDER between Spain and Portugal will open from Saturday, and from Monday, bars and shops in the Comunidad Valenciana will be permitted to stay open until the 22.00 curfew.

These new measures announced come before the end of Spain's 'State of Alarm' on May 9, and Portugal's border opening two days before its own confinement ends on May 3.

Until now, only residents or citizens in Portugal were allowed to cross over from Spain, and only Spanish citizens or residents in the country were permitted to travel over the frontier from Portugal – a situation that has been in place since January.

The only exceptions were for goods deliveries and cross-border workers, but even then, many traders on either side of the divide said they had noticed severe financial losses as a result.

Districts such as Ciudad Rodrigo in the province of Salamanca, Castilla y León, are among these, and its direct neighbour, the Almeida district in eastern Portugal.

Workers and residents in the Spanish provinces of Ourense (Galicia), Zamora and Salamanca (Castilla y León), Badajoz and Cáceres (the two that make up Extremadura), and Huelva (Andalucía) who have been used to popping up the road into Portugal can now do so again.

Portuguese day-trippers also contribute to the economy in these provinces, for shopping, sightseeing, visiting and other reasons.

Two days after Portugal reopens to Spain, the eastern region of the Comunidad Valenciana – the three Mediterranean coastal provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellón – will see bars and restaurants closing at 22.00 rather than, as has been the case for most of 2021, at 18.00.

Before the 18.00 compulsory shutting, these premises had been forced to cease trading altogether, except for takeaway food and home deliveries.

Shops selling 'essentials', such as supermarkets, pharmacies and other food stores, have never had any closing time restrictions since summer, but all others were required to close at 18.00 until around Easter, extended thereafter to 20.00.

For hypermarkets and other stores that sold 'essential' and 'non-essential' goods, the latter was required to be roped off from 18.00 and later, from 20.00, and customers who brought them to the till would be refused sale.

The curfew will remain as 22.00, despite calls from the hospitality industry to increase it to 22.30, meaning customers cannot actually stay in bars and restaurants until closing time – they have to ensure they give themselves time to get home, and owners or managers of these premises will be required to have actually turned the key in the door no later than the stroke of 22.00.

Outside seating areas in cafés and eateries can now be fully occupied, rather than at 75% as in the past few weeks or 50% before then, although the inside parts can still only take in up to 30% of the legal maximum for the size of the building.

Whilst this is unlikely to be a concern for customers – except during the recent heavy rain, it is generally possible to sit in a pavement café in the region year-round, even if, in winter, a thick coat is necessary – it could still affect trade, since some establishments only have space for two or three outside tables at the most, and for the rest, it may not be financially viable to open at all when it rains.

Contagion rates in the Comunidad Valenciana have been very low over the past month or so, with large numbers of towns and villages having no cases at all and bigger towns in single figures, and a concerted effort to get vaccines administered means the region is expecting to be on track to have 80% of its headcount immunised by the autumn.

For these reasons, it is hoped that the restrictions mentioned will be relaxed in summer, although this has not been confirmed.

Other changes to come into effect from Monday include events, concerts and cultural activities such as cinema and theatre now being open to up to 75% of the legal maximum for the venue size, rather than 50%, with no more than 500 people inside irrespective of size, or 1,000 outside.

Outdoor activities, including guided tours, sports and leisure, and children's play parks, whether led by professional guides or instructors or organised by individuals, will be open to up to 20 people at a time, or 10 people if they take place indoors, such as when a guided tour or exercise class involves a visit to a museum or takes place in a community hall.

Celebrations, such as weddings, christenings, funerals and so on, secular or religious, will be limited to 50% of the usual safe maximum for the venue size.

Elements that will not change straight away are the 22.00 curfew, the limit of six people meeting up in outside areas, and members of no more than two household units in private homes.

A certain level of flexibility is in place for visits to care homes where, in theory, all staff and residents would now have been vaccinated.

The region's borders, shut since the beginning of the year, will open again on May 9.