Although Spain’s regions and the central Health Ministry have already decided to extend the current coronavirus restrictions on social activity over Easter week, both the national police and the civil guard consider that this is not enough and that closures of municipalities will be more effective in reducing mobility, rather than the perimeter closures that have been in place in many territories since last October.
Both forces have complained that total road controls were unfeasible as there were not enough police to monitor them for 24 hours a day. However, during the five weekends of municipal closures, when they imposed more than 7,000 sanctions, they had the support of the local police, which enabled them to better control the mobility into large municipalities and tourist areas from other autonomies, and this needs to be the case once again over the Easter holiday period.
The only region to oppose the measures was Madrid, which has the highest incidence rate in Spain among the regions and which refuses to apply a perimeter closure. The city seems to be swimming against the tide with regard to its Covid-19 strategies.
