Seven more days of restrictions in Salamanca and Valladolid

VALLADOLID and Salamanca will have to put up with another week of the restrictions the Castilla y Leon government imposed on the two cities from last Thursday and which were due to end at midnight today, Wednesday September 9.

The regional Health ministry announced the measures are being extended for another seven days due to the Covid-19 situation in both locations.

“It is necessary to give continuity to the preventative actions already in force,” the department said in a statement.

The order for the extension was published in the regional Official Bulletin on Wednesday. The regional government said this will now be passed on to the corresponding legal body for possible ratification.

On Tuesday the regional Health minister Veronica Casado said that a week on from the Junta de Castilla y Leon introducing the “drastic” restrictions in Valladolid and Salamanca to halt a rise in the number of new Covid-19 infections the situation in the two was beginning to improve, although she warned that there are still many cases.

She added however that with the extension to the restrictions this would be the 14-day period which is calculated at the period of infection, and said the administration is confident that a fortnight “will be sufficient.”

Casado insisted that the two cities are not in a lockdown Phase one, pointing out there is no State of Alarm and there are no restrictions on movement.

What is recommended is “staying at home and restricting to the maximum social contacts,” she said.

Last week Valladolid City Council reacted furiously to the regional government’s decision to impose the new restrictions, describing the move as “disproportionate” and “arbitrary,” and announcing it would be taking the matter to court.

In a statement the city administration criticised what it claimed was a complete lack of consultation on the move, and argued the measures were “unjustified” and “affect residents’ basic rights.”

The statement also maintained that the measures including tighter restrictions on gatherings were illogical given the activities which are permitted, and would have a detrimental impact on the people and businesses which had been taken on to organise events in the city.

The council insisted that there would have been no risk in staging the events which had been scheduled as all the necessary health and safety precautions like limited numbers and social distancing would have been enforced, pointing to a recent arts and theatre festival as an example.

This week however, Valladolid mayor Oscar Puente seemed more resigned to the situation, commenting, “the figures remain bad.”