The regional government has informed that it is planning to close Andalucía's borders for this long All Saints holiday weekend.

The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, said he was in favour of the measure in an interview on the Cope radio station on Tuesday morning, although he added that a final decision would be announced on Wednesday after hearing advice from his committee of experts.

"To be honest, today, considering this morning's numbers of patients in hospital and ICUs, I don't think this is a good time for an influx [of visitors to the region]," said Moreno.

Pessimism

"I'm pessimistic about keeping the region open this weekend," he added.

This would make Andalucía the sixth Spanish region to close its borders with other regions, after the new state of alarm declared on Sunday created a legal framework for regions to adopt this sort of measure to control the pandemic.

A series of exceptions to a ban on entering and leaving a closed region was established in the state of alarm.

Regarding the situation in Andalucía, Moreno expressed his concern as "the hospitalisation figures are similar to those of April" and "the cold weather hasn't got here yet", which normally brings the typical autumn and winter flu.

Currently there are more than 2,000 people in hospital in the region. The peak during the first wave was 2,800.

Later curfew

The president also confirmed that he would put the start of the night curfew back an hour to 12 midnight, as hospitality business owners in several provinces have requested.

At present the curfew starts at 11pm and ends at 6am.

Moreno did not specify in which provinces the 12 midnight start would be applied.