ARCHIVED - Extra spot checks on the roads of Spain over Easter to enforce travel restrictions

64,200 police and Guardia officers will be checking that the ban on inter-regional travel is obeyed

As Easter Week begins it would be normal for the traffic authorities in Spain to be preparing for the annual exodus of people from Madrid and central Spain to the coasts, but with pandemic travel restrictions in place it was announced this Wednesday that instead extra controls are to be set up during Semana Santa to monitor shorter journeys.

64,200 police and Guardia Civil officers will be deployed to ensure that the travel restrictions, particularly the ban on inter-regional travel other than in exceptional circumstances, are being obeyed. In announcing the campaign Fernando Grande-Marlaska, the Minister of the Interior, remarked that this year the situation at Easter is an exceptional one and called upon all members of the public to reduce their travel plans to the bare minimum. The Interterritorial Committee announced last night that the current restrictions would be maintained across Spain and the regional governments themselves would continue to decide if they wished to modify the restrictions relating to their individual regions.

Additional controls will be run by the Policia Local as well.

Those living in coastal areas are particularly concerned about the possibility of an influx of holidaymakers from Madrid, as levels of infections are currently running at 228 cases per 100,000 of population in the capital. This is more than four times higher than the rate in Murcia, which is 56, seven times higher than the rate in the Valencia region which is just 30 cases and almost double the rate in Andalucía where the rate is 120.

On Wednesday evening the latest Covid-19 data report showed that the incidence of the virus has started to rise again across Spain and on Wednesday the rate rose in 15 of Spain's 17 autonomous regions.