The Spanish Government Cabinet had an emergency meeting this morning Sunday 25th October where they approved that all of Spain is to return to a State of Alarm. It comes after 10 of the 17 autonomous States petitioned the government for the return of the State of alarm which when granted would give them the tools to enforce curfews.
As all of Europe begins to take different measures to reduce the mobility to control the spread of Covid-19, Spain needed the State of Alarm Status to be legally permitted to reduce mobility. This is only the fourth time in the history of the Spanish democracy that a State of alarm has been declared. The most recent cases being when the traffic controllers declared a strike and of course the start of the Covid pandemic.
The President of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, in his address to the people of Spain this afternoon said that a reduction of mobility was the most effective way of slowing the spread of the virus and that a curfew would be imposed throughout Spain from 11pm until 6am. The Canary Islands due to their low incidence of Covid are currently exempt to any curfew.
Each Autonomous State will have the ability to adapt the curfew to their needs with the starting time ranging from 21.00 to 00.00 and ending from 05.00 to 07.00. They will also have the ability to restrict the mobility within an individual province or the whole autonomous state should they deem fit. Which means nobody would be able to travel in or out of these areas unless it is for work or health reasons.
President Sanchez also advised that he will be presenting next Tuesday to Congress his intention to have the period of the State of Alarm extended for six months and said it would end on May 9th 2021. Under current Spanish law a State of Alarm can only be granted for 15 days after which it must be presented to the Congress for extension approval.
So from 23.00 tonight there is a curfew in all of Spain. The only reasons you are permitted to be on the street or travelling is for work, medical reasons or taking care of children or elderly.