Comunidad Valenciana scraps 'Covid passport' rule a week early

COVID 'passports' will no longer be needed in the Comunidad Valenciana to access anywhere other than care homes when visiting friends or relatives, starting tomorrow (Tuesday, February 22), regional president Ximo Puig has announced.

The original plan was to axe the requirement from Tuesday, March 1, provided contagion rates continued to fall, but the move has been brought forward a week.

Puig has also agreed to eliminate the legal limit of 10 customers to a table in bars and restaurants, and the requirement to keep these at least 1.5 metres (4'11”) apart.

But smoking in outside seating areas in cafés and eateries remains banned at the moment, as authorities consider it could lead to the virus spreading if a person with a cigarette is infected.

“These new times are calling for us not to extend restrictions for one day longer – our economic, social and emotional recovery is about to begin,” Puig stated in an inter-departmental meeting he chaired jointly with the regional public health secretary Isaura Navarro.

At present, the Comunidad Valenciana is the only region still requesting Covid 'passports', or vaccine certificates, as a condition of entry to inside areas of restaurants, bars, gyms, sports and concert arenas, theatres and cinemas, among other leisure premises which typically see large numbers of people in a confined space.

From February 22, they will only be needed by visitors to nursing homes, or by anyone entering Social Centres – a type of community hall-cum-café, sometimes with a theatre or cinema room inside – given that these are frequently used by the elderly.

Use of Covid certificates for these places needs to be approved by the regional High Court of Justice, which has the last word in each of Spain's 17 autonomously-governed regions concerning pandemic-related restrictions, but this organism is not expected to present any barriers to the rule change.

Four of Spain's regions opted not to use Covid 'passports' for bar and restaurant entry, for various reasons – one being that, by default, waiters, waitresses and bartenders would, by default, become 'Covid police' and be faced with a major responsibility, that of 'screening out' people unable to prove they had been vaccinated, which is not part of their job description and for which they would not get paid any extra.

Another reason was that some regional authorities did not believe vaccine certificate scanning at the door would necessarily prevent contagion.

Ximo Puig agrees with this, but says the scheme's success has been in encouraging more members of the public to get jabbed, given that they would not otherwise be able to go out for a drink, eat out, or meet up with friends, unless they arranged to have an antigen test 24 hours before.

“By requiring sight of a Covid certificate, we've managed to get a further 130,000 people in the Comunidad Valenciana to take up the vaccine,” Puig insists.

“Only this justifies the effort the hospitality and catering industry and the general public have had to make.”

Masks must still be worn in all inside spaces except private homes, or restaurants and bars when physically eating or drinking, everywhere in Spain, but only need to be worn outside when social distancing is not possible or may not be guaranteed, such as in a crowded street, a market, or outdoor event.

Puig says the region's huge Fallas festival is expected to go ahead as usual in March, after the 2020 version was called off and the 2021 event only took place in a handful of towns as a very low-key celebration with no spectators.

Distancing and masks will still be involved, but will be the only elements that differentiate the Fallas in 2022 to those of 2019.

Puig stresses that the key elements of public health and safety now, given that the situation has improved but 'the pandemic has not finished', are 'mask, vaccine and trellat', or 'common sense' in the Valencian regional language.

He concluded that the level of inoculation among the region's public was above the national average – this being over 90% of the population aged 12 and over – with 96.6% of the 60-plus age group now having had their third or booster dose.

These are being offered now to anyone aged 18 or over – priority appointments are given in descending age order, meaning younger adults may have to wait longer for a slot than their older counterparts, but in many cases, jabs are being administered there and then when requested, especially to those aged upwards of 40 or even over 30.