Spanish justice declared unconstitutional the quarantine imposed by the government

According to state broadcaster TVE, the decision maintains that the traffic restrictions violated citizens’ basic rights and, therefore, the state of emergency was insufficient to give them constitutional support.

With the pandemic on the rise, the government declared a state of emergency on March 14, 2020, ordering people for several weeks to go out only to do basic shopping or perform essential activities.

The move came amid a rebound in infections associated with the Delta variant and just as some regions have again announced restrictions.

Catalonia, one of the epicenters of this escalation, was preparing to seek authorization from the courts to recover the night curfew in Barcelona and in the cities most affected, like the neighboring Valencian Community, who already got the green light.

The courts of the Canary Islands, however, rejected the one requested by the local authorities.

If this goal is achieved, Catalonia would accelerate the turnaround started last week, when it decreed the closure of nightlife places in interior spaces for at least two weeks, alarmed by the explosion of infections.

“The data are more than terrible, they are frankly very, very bad”, alerted this Monday the regional health manager, Josep Maria Argimon, during a press conference during which the closure of all activities has was announced at 12:30 a.m.

With a cumulative incidence of 3,311.46 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days among young people aged 20 to 29, Catalonia leads the epidemic, while the national average for all ages is 436, 75 cases.

In the past three weeks, this region of 7.7 million people has diagnosed around 100,000 of the 800,000 positives that have accumulated since the start of the pandemic.

In this context, municipalities like Barcelona have been asking for days for help to control access to beaches and parks, points of concentration for youth gatherings since the lifting of the curfew in early May.

Driven by the contagious strain originating in India and with a large part of the vulnerable population vaccinated, this new wave is different, with younger patients, many still unvaccinated or on an incomplete diet.

“Now what weighs on us the most is hospitalization; The question is whether this will make a shift towards the intensive care unit, as has happened in other waves or if, being a younger patient, it probably doesn’t end up happening, ”explained Álvaro. Arcocha, Deputy Medical Director of Bellvitge Hospital. , Barcelona metropolitan area.

The main concern is now to manage the rebound in the middle of the vacation period of health personnel and after the relaxation of measures, such as wearing a face mask, which is no longer mandatory outside since June 26.

Regional governments also cannot resort to the state of alert legal shield, which ceased to apply in early May, forcing decisions such as curfews to be upheld by the courts.

The national bet is, for the moment, to continue to accelerate a vaccination which progresses at a very good pace.

“In the week of July 19, we will reach 25 million Spaniards with a full guideline; this means that by the end of August we will already have 70% of the population immunized with the full schedule, “Government President Pedro Sánchez said in an interview.