Local
Court ratifies a seven-day coronavirus night curfew for Marbella and Estepona
-
Andalucía's top court has supported the Junta's request to order a lockdown from 2am to 7am, in the two Costa del Sol towns, for a week-long period
The Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA), has ratified the Junta’s request for an early-morning coronavirus crisis lockdown in two of the main holiday hotspots on the Costa del Sol, where the incidence rate of the virus is high.
The public health measure, restricting the freedom of movement of people on roads and in public spaces between 2am and 7am, will be applied in Marbella and Estepona for the next seven days.
Both town halls said on Friday that they would enforce the curfew, starting at 2am on Saturday, but insisted that the infection rates were calculated without taking into account the real population in the resorts in the summer.
Despite stating that several factors indicate that Marbella is not seeing a spike in infections, Mayor Ángeles Muñoz said that now the court had ruled in favour, "We have to adopt the measure and therefore I ask the general public to accept it."
"This means there will be no movement in the streets, except for workers who can prove their working hours, emergency and essential services," she added.
The TSJA has ruled that the measure is "suitable and necessary" to protect the public health of the population from the Covid-19 virus, and "proportionate" to the restriction on the fundamental right to personal freedom, since hospital pressure indicates that in both towns the occupancy of acute care beds is 21 per cent, a critical level for intensive care.
The court considers that "the restriction of mobility during the five hours of the morning does not impede the exercise of other individual rights, being instead beneficial for the control and lower contagion of the disease."
