Laurence Dollimore
ANDALUCIA has seen an expected spike in daily coronavirus infections following four days record-low numbers.
The southernmost region added 1,162 cases Friday, a marked increase from the 544 registered on Thursday and the 366 counted on Wednesday.
It comes after the long bank holiday weekend, which finished on Tuesday, saw a significant drop in the number of PCR tests being performed.
As of yesterday, Andalucia was among the top four regions in the country in terms of its cumulative incidence rate, sitting at 155 cases per 100,000 people.
According to the Junta, 33 people lost their lives to the virus in the past 24 hours, 23 fewer than Thursday and seven fewer than Friday of last week.
In hospitals, the number of COVID patients dropped by 48 Friday to a total of 1,506, of which 318 are in intensive care (ICU).
The number of beds taken up by coronavirus has dropped by 315 over the past week.
In the ICUs, there are 13 fewer patients than Thursday and 63 fewer than a week ago.
Friday’s figures are still showing a downward trend in Andalucia when compared to the days before the bank holiday weekend.
It comes as the most populous region announced its two-phase Christmas plan on Thursday night, with different measures in place from December 12 to 17 and from December 18 until January 10.
In the first phase, travel will be permitted between municipalities within the same province e.g. from Marbella to Estepona or Fuengirola to Mijas.
However travel between provinces will continue to be forbidden e.g. from Sevilla to Cadiz or Malaga to Almeria.
Non-essential businesses, including shops, will be permitted to remain open until 9pm.
Restaurants and bars will still have to close at 6pm, while people can pick up deliveries until 9:30pm and restaurants can send out food for delivery until 11:30pm.
The curfew will also remain the same, from 10pm to 7am.
In phase two, travel will be permitted between the provinces of Andalucia.
Shops will be permitted to resume their usual opening hours i.e. past the 9pm closing time mandated in phase one.
Bars and restaurants must continue to close at six but will be allowed to re-open from 8pm to 10.30pm.
The curfew will be from 11pm until 6am, starting an hour later and ending an hour sooner.
The starting time of the curfew will be extended to 1:30am on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
