Catalan authorities ask High Court for stricter curfew criteria

The Catalan government has asked the High Court to greenlight stricter municipal curfew criteria.

If approved, this would allow authorities to implement a 1 am to 6 am curfew in cities and towns with over 20,000 residents and a 7-day Covid-19 incidence rate of 125 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

For towns of more than 5,000 residents but under 20,000, however, the incidence rate for which the curfew would apply is 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. 

This would apply to Barcelona and 61 other municipalities such as Badalona, El Prat de Llobregat, Girona, Igualada, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Lleida, or Vic.

Curfew currently in 19 towns

This comes a day after the same court rejected the government's request to extend the nightly stay-at-home order in 148 municipalities including Barcelona, allowing it instead in only 19.

The government had also lowered the criteria for which the curfew would apply, dropping the incidence rate from 250 cases per 100,000 population over the prior week to 125.

However, the High Court rejected this prior request on Thursday and set an incidence rate of 250 cases per 100,000 population over the past seven days as the new criteria. 

At the same time, the court has continued authorizing the 10-person limit of social gatherings, as well as the 70% capacity limit in religious acts throughout Catalonia.

The nightly stay-at-home order was reintroduced in July as Catalonia faced an escalation of new coronavirus cases that left medical centers in a "critical" situation. 

Large gatherings in Barcelona

Police officers in Barcelona dispersed 4,000 people on the first night the restriction was lifted, most of them in the Gràcia where annual neighborhood festivities are currently underway as well as the city beaches.

Revelers could be seen participating in street drinking parties, known as 'botellons', and according to local council sources, around 40 people were fined for not complying with Covid-19 safety measures such as wearing masks when distances cannot be kept. 

Covid-19 figures in Catalonia

As of August 19, 2021, there have been 948,990 confirmed Covid-19 cases diagnosed via PCR and other methods, and a total of 23,184 people with or suspected to have had the virus have died since the beginning of the outbreak according to funeral homes.

5,566,701 residents have been given the first dose of the vaccine: 70.4% of the total population. Out of those, 4,370,337 have also been administered a second dose (55.5% of the total population). 4,946,327 residents are considered to be fully immunized (62.7%).