Galicia region of Spain calls for high tide and low tide beach-goer maximum calculations

THE government of Galicia has called on Spain’s Health Ministry to calculate the maximum number of people allowed on the region’s beaches according to the tide.

Under the lockdown de-escalation plan, beach-goer access limits are to be worked out on the basis of a minimum space of approximately four square metres per person. A strip of six metres from the seashore is to be deducted from the area of usable beach to make the calculation.

In a letter to Health Minister Salvador Illa, the head of the Xunta de Galicia’s Health department Jesus Vazquez Almuiña points out that on Galicia’s Atlantic beaches usable area varies considerably according to whether it is high tide or low tide.

Vazquez Almuiña maintains that the ministry restriction would prevent the use of many of Galicia’s beaches and suggests two different calculations to determine usable areas.

He proposes deducting a four-metre strip from the low tide line and a strip of just one metre from the water at high tide.