The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, has said that the regional authority would wait until mid-December before announcing the Covid-19 restrictions that would be in force during the Christmas holidays.

Moreno had already explained last Sunday that Andalucía had to remain under the current restrictions until after the long Constitution weekend (7 and 8 December are public holidays) in order to allow more freedom of movement in the run-up to Christmas.

What will be permitted during the coming festive period is currently being debated around the country, both on a regional and national level.

The central government, which has left the decision-making on Covid-19 restrictions to the regional authorities, has nevertheless produced a draft list of measures that it proposes for the Christmas period.

These include limiting Christmas and New Year's dinners to a maximum of six people per gathering and imposing a night curfew between 1am and 6am, which would prevent the traditional all-night-long New Year's Eve parties that are popular in Spain, especially among young people.

The draft set of measures also suggests limiting company Christmas celebrations to six people, recommending outdoor celebrations wherever possible.

Andalucía reaction

Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, responded by saying that the regional government would take its own decisions, rather than sticking to the central government's guidelines, and that these would depend on how the infection rate and the hospital figures develop over the next couple of weeks.

In fact Juanma Moreno said on Wednesday that they would wait until mid-December before deciding on what measures to bring in for the holiday period. He is due to announce changes to the current measures on 9 December.

Speaking again on Thursday, he warned of the "enormous danger" of contagion if people "relax their attitude" too much as the holidays approach, although he hoped that families would be able to get together.

However "Christmas 2020 will be very different to Christmas 2019," he said.