National debate to close interiors of hospitality premises at 11pm if at medium risk

The Public Health Commission, in which the regional health authorities and the Ministry of Health of Spain are represented, will debate whether to recommend the closure of the interior of the hotel business from 11:00pm this afternoon, if it is in a territory at medium risk of Covid and with high hospital pressure, i.e. high percentage of occupancy with Covid patients.

The proposal, as sources have confirmed to Europa Press, would be activated when the incidence rates of 100 over 14 days is exceeded and there is considerable healthcare pressure in hospital beds and in intensive care units (ICU).

“It is about giving more relevance to the situation of hospitals at this stage in the evolution of the pandemic. The key point is hospitals because right now the majority of infections nationally are in children under 11 years of age, who do not need to go into hospital", explain these sources, who specify that it is "practically the same traffic light of measures which was debated last week by the Council of Ministers, although an agreement was not reached.

The document that will be debated today, proposed by the Alerts Report, also includes the proposal to close nightlife at 1.00am when at medium risk, but allows dancing with a mask on. In hospitality businesses, such as restaurants, bars, or cafeterias, the maximum occupancy of tables should also be restricted to 10 people or 50% of the capacity in indoor areas.

In the case of high risk, when there is an incidence above 300 and the healthcare pressure is even higher, the proposal to be debated states that the interiors of the hospitality industry would not be closed, but could open at 25% capacity, with six people per table and a closing time of 11:00pm. At extreme risk, with an incidence above 500, the interior of hospitality premises would be closed.

With this update, Spain would currently be at medium risk in terms of the accumulated incidence over 14 days, since it is above 100, but it would not meet the parameters in hospital occupancy, which still stands at 2.33% in the case of hospital beds and 5.70% in ICUs.

The Health Commission is aware that there are too many places across Spain, including the Canary Islands, that are ignoring restrictions, have staff and clients with no masks, allow dancing, and have tables closer than 2 metres apart, so until they all comply to combat the virus, will have no choice but to implement tougher restrictions on the sector until they do.