New State of Alarm declared in Spain. What you need to know as a visitor

The Government of Spain has just announced a new State of Alarm for the entire country. This duration of the State of Alarm could be prolonged for 6 months, meaning until May 9th, 2021, if the Congress votes to approve the extension in the following days.

What are the new measures imposed by the State of Alarm?

Given the declaration of the state of alarm, it means that regional presidents can be delegated with the authority to totally or partially confine the territories of their respective Autonomous Community.  

Curfew at night

A statewide curfew has been put in place between the hours of 23:00 and 6:00. 

Right now, the curfew is set to last for the next 15 days.

Communities will have the ability to either move the starting time of the curfew to 22:00 or 00:00 (an hour earlier or later) and also move the ending time to 5:00 or 7:00 ( so again, an hour earlier or later than normally imposed by the government).

Movement between different regions of Spain

A novelty introduced by this state of alarm is that it re-enables the possibility to restrict citizen's ability to leave an area, except for going to work, dealing with health issues and other legal or family obligations that would allow traveling between provinces.

Each regional government may choose to apply this measure for its entire territory or it can opt to apply this measure just for a smaller area, like a city or a province, not the entire autonomous community.

Restrictions on social gatherings (rule of six)

The state of alarms establishes the restriction of social gathering to a maximum of six people if they are from different households.

This rule applies throughout Spain, so this includes the Canary Islands as well.

Does the State of Alarm mean a new lockdown in Spain?

NO.

This new state of alarm is not meant to put people back into lockdown as it happened in spring. 

The state of alarm is the government's way to be able to approve the different measures and regulations that are requested by the different Autonomous Communities, in order to cope with the surge of the virus in their region.

For example, the authorities in different autonomous communities will be able to restrict the business hours of commercial establishments, especially those related to the hospitality industry, as well as in shopping centers, gyms, etc.

Why 6 months of State of Alarm?

Pedro Sanchez said that the situation of the pandemic in Spain is very serious but he assured that the government has no intention to keep the country in a State of Alarm more than it is necessary, so if the evolution of the crisis will improve, they can shorten the duration of the State of Alarm.

We will update this article with more information as soon as it becomes available or if anything changes.