MADRID: Spain has lifted a state of emergency in place since October to fight the pandemic, allowing Spaniards to travel between regions for the first time in months.
“It’s like New Year’s,” said 28-year-old Oriol Corbella in Barcelona, where the lifting of the curfew was met with shouts, applause and music.
Fellow Madrid resident Laura, who did not wish to share her last name, was teary-eyed on Sunday as she waited at the Atocha train station for family members travelling from the central region of Castilla-La Mancha.
“It’s been eight months since we’ve seen them and this is all very emotional,” said the 45-year-old.
Although the emergency measure, which expired at midnight (2200 GMT Saturday) will lead to more freedoms, it is a headache for the country’s 17 regional governments responsible for health care.
While intra-regional travel bans have ended and curfews have been lifted, not all of the restrictions are being relaxed in Spain, one of Europe’s hardest-hit nations with nearly 79,000 deaths and 3.5 million infections.
Regions can still restrict opening hours and impose capacity limits in bars and restaurants. They can also seek court approval for stricter measures such as reimposing curfews, capping the number allowed at home gatherings or extending a ban on internal travel.
But the courts have offered different rulings, leading to a patchwork of measures across the country. A court in the eastern Valencia region approved a midnight-to-6:00 am curfew, while the top court in the northern Basque Country said the area could not keep its nighttime curfew.
State-owned rail operator Renfe says ticket sales for next week are up 13 per cent over the last seven days. But after more than a year of restrictions, and with the weather turning hot and sunny, the authorities have warned people against letting down their guard.
Spaniards must be careful “not to get the wrong impression about what ending the state of emergency means... it doesn’t mean an end to the restrictions,” the health ministry’s emergencies coordinator Fernando Simon said on Thursday.
Everyone must continue to behave responsibly, he insisted. “Nothing can be ruled out in terms of the evolution of the pandemic.”