Laurence Dollimore
IT’S official; Marbella, Estepona, Alhuarin de la Torre, Manilva and Mollina must close all non-essential businesses from Wednesday.
The five Malaga municipalities must enforce the measure for at least two weeks, regardless of whether the figures improve over the same period.
It comes after they crossed the threshold of 1,000 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people.
The data was updated this morning by the Institute of Statistics and Cartography.
Regional president Juanma Moreno is still requesting extra powers to order a home confinement in the municipalities with an incidence rate of over 1,000 cases per 100,000.
However the central Government Madrid is continuing to deny his requests, which also include an 8pm curfew.
Health Minister Salvador Illa said leaders needed to be patient as measures taken now ‘are not seen until two weeks later.’
Moreno branded his outlook an ‘error in judgement’, accusing Pedro Sanchez’s government of leaving the autonomous communities without the sufficient tools to fight the third wave.
The Junta is now meeting every Monday and Thursday to update its lists of the worst-hit municipalities.
Those who cross the incidence rate threshold of 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants must close their outer perimeters while those who cross 1,000 cases must cease all non-essential trade and activity.
Those added to the lists on Monday will enforce the measures from the following Wednesday (two days later) while those added on Thursday will be added the following Saturday.
