Alex Trelinski
OVER 3,700 people were sanctioned over the weekend for breaking COVID-19 safety rules across the Valencian Community.
Around a third of those involved motorists trying to breach new weekend city perimeter closures.
Cities with 50,000 or more residents shut their borders between 3.00 pm last Friday and 6.00 am this Monday morning(February 1).
The measure will continue for at least the next two weekends as authorities try to bring down the high rate of COVID-19 infections.
The Policia Nacional issued over 3,200 sanctions and arrested 24 people for more serious infractions.
The Guardia Civil handed out 512 tickets, 256 of them on Sunday.
Around 2,400 sanctions were issued at checkpoints on major city roads.
Traffic jams were reported last Friday afternoon on routes in and out of centres like Alicante, Benidorm, Elche, and Valencia.
Alicante council yesterday appealed, without success, to the Valencian justice ministry to delay the border closure on a Friday to 6.00 pm.
Alicante’s Citizen Safety councillor, Jose Ramon Gonzalez, said: “Our idea was sensible and would have helped workers and people picking up their children from school.”
“The 3.00 pm Friday start is causing great inconvenience to thousands of our citizens.”
