No Smoking, No Late Nightlife – Spain’s Canary Islands Takes Extraordinary Measures to Curtail COVID Crisis

SPAIN’S Canary Islands have been forced to adopt a set of extraordinary measures in order to curtail the growing number of Covid cases on the archipelago. The president of the Canary Islands, Angel Victor Torres, has announced that it will restrict the nightlife sector after experiencing a severe outbreak because of a nightclub.

More specifically, Torres has stated that the Canary Islands will “go back” to the regulations they had on June 20. This stated that nightclubs and other nightlife establishments may only open their outdoor spaces, with seating, at a capacity of 75 per cent. Furthermore, all use of dance floors is banned and an interpersonal distance must be upheld at all times.

Not only this but the council has decided that meetings with friends and family will be capped at a maximum of 10 people. This is for both outdoor spaces and indoor spaces. However, they do admit that they will not be able to come into homes and assure this measure is being respected. Instead, Torres appeals to the solidarity and responsibility of the residents in the Canary Islands and he hopes they will respect the severity of the situation.

The Canary Islands have also joined Galicia in becoming one of the few regions in Spain to ban smoking in open spaces if social distancing cannot be maintained. These measures will be published by the governing council tomorrow and are expected to come into force the same day.