The restrictions against the Covid are relaxed again in several communities, this time also affecting nightlife. The Community of Madrid, Aragón or Castilla y León have announced the expansion of capacity and hours, and even the possibility of consuming at the bar again, while other autonomies remain more cautious and, such as Castilla-La Mancha. they ask for unity of action . Meanwhile, the nightlife sector will focus on Wednesday before the Ministry of Health to demand the immediate elimination of restrictions that have to do with discos or shows.
Hours, capacity, dance area … this is how the restrictions now vary depending on which community you go out to party in
The Community of Madrid will lift the hourly restrictions of bars and discos on Monday , which may open until six, although it still cannot be consumed at the bar. The capacity of the theaters and cinemas will also reach 100%, and the number of diners on the terraces is increased from 8 to 10.
For its part, Murcia decided on Monday to reopen nightlife, but without bar activity, with tables for a maximum of six people and with limited capacity. Restrictions are also lightened in Castilla y León, where it is once again allowed to consume in the bars of the bars, standing consumption and inside the nightlife and the limit in the closing hours of the hotel trade, set until now in the 1:30.
Aragon has announced that as of Friday nightlife and hospitality may open until the time allowed by their municipal license, as long as they do not exceed four in the morning . The capacity will remain limited indoors, to 50% with a maximum of 10 people per table, but not outdoors, where it will reach 100%, although there may not be more than 15 people per table. It will not be allowed to consume in the bar or use the dance floors.
Given the steps taken by various autonomies, the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, has affirmed that also in the elimination of restrictions “Spain deserves a single message, no 17”, which should be fixed in the Interterritorial Council . García-Page has asked that the measures be taken “hand in hand with each other and with the Ministry of Health” and with “a reasonable dose of unity .”
Andalusia, meanwhile, reflects on what measures to alleviate, a decision that its vice president, Juan Marín, has assured that it will not have to do with what other autonomies do, but must be ” endorsed by the reports we receive daily” from the experts . The Andalusian Minister of the Presidency, Elías Bendodo , has warned against the rush when taking certain measures and has recalled that there may be new variants of the coronavirus.
For its part, Galicia closed this Monday an agreement with the Galician hospitality sector whereby businesses will be able to advance towards 100% of the capacity depending on the “protection barriers” that they are putting up against the virus and that in the best cases contemplates the reopening of bar consumption from Wednesday. Asked about nightlife, the Minister of Health, Julio García Comesaña, has advanced that a similar plan is being prepared, which will affect “a lot in ventilation.”
And while some autonomies advance in the end of the restrictions even in the nightlife sector that is seen as more complicated, others are quite steps behind. Catalonia still wants to wait to see the evolution of the pandemic to reopen it and this Tuesday has issued new guidelines for nursing homes, to recover visits with physical contact in centers that are in a better epidemiological situation of a traffic light with three categories, but it has not modified the restrictions in hospitality or nightlife.
In this scenario, businessmen and workers from the nightlife and entertainment sector will gather this Wednesday in front of the Ministry of Health to demand the immediate reopening of the premises to 100% of its capacity, with dance floors and without limits to the hours of opening. However, decisions such as those in Madrid or Aragon to extend hours or in Castilla y León to allow consumption at the bar are seen in the sector as one more reason to demand common guidelines for all communities in a drop in restrictions that they believe must “speed up”.
“It is precisely the dispersion of criteria that makes it necessary for us to focus on the Ministry of Health,” says Vicente Pizcueta , the spokesman for the National Federation of Leisure and Entertainment Entrepreneurs (Spain by Night ) , who believes that the relaxation of restrictions on hospitality, nightlife and culture that several communities have announced in recent days reinforces the concentration before Health. They ask for common guidelines and that “steps be accelerated” toward relaxation.
Pressure on the Government
Thus, d isc jockeys, promoters, singers, flamenco dancers and leisure and entertainment workers will participate in a concentration before Health, to “pressure” the central and regional governments hours before a new Interterritorial Health Council is held, which in August of last year it decided to close discos and night bars or, in June, to give free rein to the communities to decide whether or not to reopen.
With their protest to Health, which will be followed by other acts throughout the country, they demand the reopening of 100% of the entertainment venues, their dance floors, capacity, capacity and hours , according to a statement in which the sector remembers that Spain has “the best vaccination data in Europe” to ask for a “roadmap that allows the leisure and entertainment sector to return to normal, looking at the United Kingdom, France, Germany or Italy, which recover the dance floors of European clubs with less positive vaccination data and epidemiological indicators than Spanish clubs “.
The claim of the nightlife sector comes at a time when infections and hospitalizations due to Covid continue to decline and in which, despite this, epidemiologists ask for “patience” before lifting all restrictions. To do this, they point out, it is necessary to know if the return to school or work after the holidays does not cause an upturn in cases, which still coexists with the contagious delta variant and with the fact that not the entire population is vaccinated. All this also coincides with the arrival of the cold shortly, which will make it difficult to be on terraces and in which other respiratory diseases find good ground.
