Costa Del Sol closes to tourists as Andalucia region shuts borders for two weeks
SPAIN’S Andalucia region covering areas like the Costa del Sol is shutting its borders for two weeks.
The closure will come into effect at midnight and means tourists will be banned from entering or leaving unless they can show they are heading home.
Workers and people needing to get to hospital will also be exempted from the travel ban.
Three of Andalucia’s eight provinces - Seville, Granada and Jaen - will also be sealed off to outsiders until November 9 as part of a second-tier lockdown, affecting around half of the region’s 8.5 million inhabitants.
Luis Callejon Sune, president of Costa del Sol hotel association Aehcos, told local press: “The scoreboard has gone back to zero. The few reservations there were will be cancelled.”
Andalucia’s president Juanma Moreno announced the border closure last night, 72 hours after a national night-time curfew came into force which hotel bosses say led to a first wave of cancellations.
The scheduled end date for the Andalucia perimeter shutdown coincides with the end of Spain’s recently-declared state of emergency.
But PM Pedro Sanchez said on Sunday he wanted it extended by Parliament until May 9.
The sealing-off of the southern Spanish region follows earlier border closures by other regions including the Basque Country and Asturias.
The cumulative incidences of Covid-19 over the past 14 days in Andalucia stands at 396 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, which is below the national average of 452.
In an earlier tweet signalling his lockdown intention, Juanma Moreno said: “It pains my soul because I know many businesses are going to be affected.
“But we have to put a brake on infections because the data we have now is not good.”
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