MADRID – Health Minister Darias wants to ban all outdoor events involving audiences of more than a thousand people in regions with “extreme risk”. That would mean bullfighting will not take place on Madrid’s public holiday on May 2.
Not only is the regional May holiday at stake, but also the celebration in honour of Madrid’s patron saint San Isidro. The Feria de San Isidro would take place in the Madrid arena Palacio Vistalegre from 13th to 23rd May. Regional president Ayuso recently announced both events could continue as usual.
No outdoor events in Madrid, Basque Country and Navarre
In addition, at all outdoor events in regions with no extreme risk, smoking, eating and drinking are prohibited. The only exception is the drinking of water. There are no outdoor events in the regions with an incidence higher than 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days (alarm status 4). This is now the case in the Basque Country, Navarre and Madrid and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
In the regions with alert status 3, that is, with an incidence of between 150 and 250 cases, a maximum of 250 people can gather outdoors. For regions with alarm status 2, a maximum of 500 people. Basically, no event in Spain involving more than 1,000 people can take place.
Provide more people with a first dose of vaccine faster
In order to provide more people with the first dose of vaccine more quickly, the possibility of delaying the second shot for all people who have had the first dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine is being looked into. England and France, among others, have already adopted this strategy.
The regional councils of Catalonia and Andalucia have been pushing for weeks to change the vaccination strategy. They want to vaccinate a larger part of the population in a shorter period of time. Minister Darias has not been in favour of this, to date. She gives priority to the full immunisation of residents in the age category 70 to 80 years.
