Sanchez Gives No Joy to UK Expats over Closed Bars and Restaurants in Spain’s Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca

SPAIN’S Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, has given no joy to closed bars and restaurants in Spain’s Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca that will not be reopening in two days time.

Sanchez was speaking at a news conference at La Moncloa in Madrid ahead of Phase 1 of the country’s de-escalation of the State of Alarm measures starting this Monday (May 11).

Parts of the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca will enter that phase, but many heavily-populated areas will not.

That crucially includes Malaga Province, and the key cities of Alicante and Elche in Alicante Province.

The Prime Minister said that “there are areas where the pandemic was more acute and they need a little more time to control it and to fine-tune their health systems.”

Last night’s announcement that bars, restaurants, and businesses will not be able to resume trading next week, went down badly with local politicians and traders.

There was no immediate sense as to when blocked regions can join the rest of the country.

Sanchez merely appealed for anybody living in a Phase 1 area to act ” with all caution and all prudence ” and stressed the need for each person to continue following all the rules over social distancing.

“The best way of stopping the spread of the virus is to make sure that everybody continues taking the same precautions daily, almost as if they were infected,” he added.

“Improving testing, tracking and detection of Covid-19 won’t work, if everybody starts to think that can start easing what they have been doing.”