No special Covid restrictions planned in Andalucía for Easter week

Easter is less than a month away and the way the sixth wave of the coronavirus is going makes it look as if no special restrictions will be imposed during Holy Week. On Tuesday 15 March Elías Bendodo, the Andalusian government spokesman, said the Junta is convinced that Semana Santa this year will be as normal. “We hope restrictions will not be needed, although of course it depends on how things develop,” he said.

However, he did call on people to be sensible “as we have done in the past two years of the pandemic”, such as wearing a mask in crowded places, maintaining social distance and using hand sanitiser. “We cannot drop our guard, even though in Andalucía the vaccination rates are high with 90 per cent of over-12s now being fully vaccinated,” he said.

With regard to schools, Bendodo indicated that there is no change to the plans to drop the requirement to wear a mask after Easter, even though the incidence rate has increased by 20 points. “We are carrying on with our plan, because the cumulative incidence rate in schools is low and the bubble group scheme is still being used,” he said.

In Andalucía as a whole, the Covid incidence rate on Tuesday was 282, which was 20 points higher than the previous day. Bendodo said this indicates that “the fall is starting to stabilise” and called for people to exercise caution and behave responsibly, although he said the increased number of cases had not resulted in additional pressure on hospitals.