SPAIN'S government is once again going through the weekly applications to jump forward a 'Phase' which, if agreed, would take place from Monday – and so far, only the Comunidad Valenciana and the northern Morocco-based city-province of Ceuta have opted not to do so.
The former, on the east coast, moved onto 'Phase 2', the penultimate on the scale, on Monday this week (June 1) after 14 of its 24 area health departments had been on 'Phase 1' for a fortnight, the standard timescale, and the rest for three weeks.
Ceuta moved onto 'Phase 2' along with its fellow Spanish city on the African continent, Melilla, on May 25, but a sudden spike in the number of cases due to a birthday party where numbers far exceeded the legal maximum means Ceuta regional health minister Mohammed Mohand has opted not to request a further opening up.
Galicia, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Navarra, La Rioja, Extremadura, the Balearic and Canary Islands, Melilla, Asturias and Murcia have applied to move onto 'Phase 3', the last before the lockdown is declared over.
In the case of the Canaries, the islands of La Graciosa, El Hierro and La Gomera have already been on 'Phase 3' for a week, having been a step ahead of the rest of the country all along; this also applies to Formentera in the Balearic Islands, although not to its three larger neighbours, Mallorca, Menorca or Ibiza.
Galicia also wants travel between provinces to be authorised, given that its four provinces are 'in a similar epidemiological situation', and also for the borders between the region and its eastern neighbour, Asturias, and Portugal to the south, to reopen.
Castilla-La Mancha has been split between 'Phases' several times, typically with the provinces of Cuenca and Guadalajara ahead, and now the central territory is entirely on 'Phase 2', it wants these two provinces only to move to 'Phase 3'.
Castilla y León is one of only two complete regions still on 'Phase 1', although earlier this week, it was agreed that the healthcare catchment area of El Bierzo in the province of León could move to 'Phase 2' – which regional health minister Verónica Casado now wants the rest of the centre-northern territory to switch to from Monday.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com