Covid clampdown on high- risk areas
Measures brought in for Orihuela and Elche – but not Orihuela Costa
SPECIAL restrictions to clamp down on Covid- 19 were imposed on Friday in Orihuela and Elche in Alicante province, Guadassuar in Valencia and Onda in Castellón.
The 22 new measures were introduced by the regional government for 14 days.
Amongst the most significant was to limit gatherings in public or private to six people, keep children’s playgrounds closed and only open parks and open air recreational areas between 08.00 and 22.00.
Commercial centres, shops, hostelry establishments, hotels and tourist accommodation had to reduce their capacity to 50%, as did street markets, where the number of stalls was also halved.
Places of worship were affected in the same way, including for weddings, communions and baptisms, while the limit for wakes and funerals was set at 25 people in the open air and 15 indoors.
Hostelry establishments have to shut at 23.00 and take last orders at 22.00, customers must wear face masks at all times apart from ‘ the moment of consumption’, eating or drinking must be at tables, clients can only got to the bar to place or collect orders,
tables inside and out must be 1.5 metres apart and groups cannot exceed six people.
Visits to care homes have been suspended except in a few particular circumstances.
Health councillor Ana Barceló said this was being done to prevent the spread of outbreaks in these municipalities which had been detected early thanks to monitoring.
Sra Barceló said the restrictions were in response to health reports from October 14 and were proportional to the level of alert based on several indicators. While the preventative measures taken in August have had a positive impact, the number of new cases had not dropped as it was hoped, she explained.
Risk assessments in Elche and Orihuela, including their rural districts, showed evidence of a sustained, high rate of community transmission, which she said makes it impossible to trace the majority of cases.
In Elche the constant increase had worsened over the previous 28 days and become significant in the last two weeks.
In Orihuela and its rural districts the growth over this period was said to be ‘ clearly exponential’, something which ‘ could not be explained by the numerous outbreaks detected, most of which were social, related to gatherings of family or friends’.
However Orihuela Costa and the rural district of Torremendo, which fall under the Torrevieja health area, were not affected by the new measures.
Cases in the affected areas of the municipality had shot up to 431 per 100,000 inhabitants, explained health councillor Luis Galiano.
He noted that 41% of outbreaks had been among people aged between 15 and 44, compared to 17% among over 65s.
Local security councillor Vicente Valverde noted that these restrictions do not entail any sort of confinement for residents, only limitations on capacity for certain places.
“We respect the decision and the measures taken by the regional health department but we are going to demand all the information, data and comparisons with other municipalities to guarantee residents’ rights and defend their interests,” he said.
The full list ( in Spanish) is available from Orihuela town hall website at https:// bit. ly/ 378Yw0J