Residents on Spain’s Costa Blanca find out tomorrow if they move into Phase 1 of de-escalation

Residents on Spain’s Costa Blanca will find out tomorrow, Friday, May 15, if a bid by the Valencian Government to move into Phase 1 of de-escalation has been successful.

THE Valencian Community yesterday put in a formal request for the Government to allow the 14 health departments that did not make it to phase 1 last week can do so from Monday, May 18.

The Minister of Health, Ana Barceló, after meeting with President Ximo Puig, agreed to apply to the Ministry of Health for this move, with two conditions.

The first is that the measure allowing outdoor cultural events and shows with a capacity of up to 200 people throughout the territory will not be applied. The second is not to allow meetings and social contact in groups of up to 10 people, reports laSexta.

The health departments of Vinaròs (Castellon), Requena (Valencia), Xativa-Ontinyent (Valencia), Gandia (Valencia), Alcoy (Alicante), Denia (Alicante), La Marina Baixa (Alicante), Elda (Alicante), Orihuela (Alicante) and Torrevieja (Alicante) are already in phase 1 since last Monday, May 11.

Now the regional government hopes that the departments of Alicante-San Juan, General de Alicante, General de Elche, Manises and Elche-Crevillent, Castellon, La Plana, Sagunto, Clinico-Malvarrosa, Arnau Vilanova-Llíria, La Fe, General de Valencia, Doctor Peset and La Ribera, can be added.

The Generalitat Valenciana has already expressed its disagreement with the Spanish Government after it agreed passage to Phase 1 to 10 health departments and not the Community as a whole, and assured that they had “complied with the requirements”.

The deadline to request the change of phase of the autonomous communities was today at 2pm and the Government is expected to give a response on Friday.

Euro Weekly News reported the regional government’s bid to increase public transport frequencies along with other measures after Barceló revealed parts of the Community had been refused entry because of fears over “excessive mobility” and high population density.

And in a further development, an unnamed Valencian lawyer announced he is taking Madrid government to the Supreme Court over its decision to hold part of the Community back.