Catalonia to maintain mobility restrictions with rest of State over Easter

Catalonia wants to maintain the restrictions on mobility between regions over Easter, as ARA has learnt. At this point, the Generalitat does not plan to lift the ban on entering or leaving Catalonia unless there are essential and justified causes. This is the position it will communicate to the Interterritorial Council of Health, where representatives from all regional governments meet to agree on common policy.

Catalonia is not the only territory that will defend this position: Valencia, Euskadi, Asturias and La Rioja are also committed to maintaining restrictions on mobility between territories during the Easter holidays. On the other hand, the Madrid Region and the Canary Islands reject the closure and want to wait and take the decision a fortnight before the start of the holidays.

Other regions have either not made their position known or are expected to do so at the meeting this afternoon. The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, has reported that he has already contacted the presidents of the neighbouring regions - Catalonia, Aragon, Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha - and the Balearic Islands, to forge a common front and agree on a joint position for this holiday period. His goal is to get Spanish Health Minister Carolina Darias to agree to limit mobility for Easter.

Sources in the Catalan executive have confirmed to the ARA that Puig and the vice-president in functions, Pere Aragonès, spoke this week by telephone and shared "worries" about the Easter holidays. The same sources insist that, for the time being, neither region has planned to lift mobility restrictions and at the moment they have not specified any joint position

As far as the answer Puig got from neighbouring communities, both Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha are in favour of banning movement in order to keep the curve under control. In fact, Murcia is one of the territories with the lowest cumulative incidence of the State, with 96 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Aragon has not wanted to say anything in order "not to generate false expectations", although it believes it is "early" to make a decision, and the Balearic Islands intend to ensure mobility but tightening controls in ports and airports: from tomorrow onwards a negative PCR result will be required from travellers coming from regions with an incidence above 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.