Costa del Sol tourists face half hour breakfasts and 90 minute lunches as bars and restaurants plan new time limits
TOURISTS returning to the Costa del Sol after the coronavirus lockdown is eased are to be given time limits on how long they are allowed to spend in bars, cafes and restaurants to allow social distancing to continue.
Families could get as little as 30 minutes to enjoy a leisurely breakfast on holiday.
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Tourist chiefs are working on the idea of half an hour for breakfast and an hour and a half for lunch.
A rota system like this would avoid packing too many people in at the same time and ensure the minimum distancing of at least 1.5m.
Reservations of more than four people will not be allowed unless they can demonstrate they live at the same address.
Distances between tables, banning sharing dishes, disinfection of everything and filters in the air conditioning systems will also all be a must.
The regional government of the holiday district of Andalusia, which includes the Costa del Sol, Costa de la Luz and Costa
Almeria, wants bars and restaurants to reopen on May 25.
They have put forward their own proposals to dealing with the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and say reservations by shifts and timed slots is the way ahead.
Regional leaders also want the hotels to open in the first fortnight of June and is pressing for the opening of some of its beaches with limited capacity for sunbathing and going in the water.
Moreno Bonilla, from the Spanish conservative People’s Party said: “We will have to establish a series of perimeters and certain metres.
“Once the capacity is completed we will allow nobody else until there are vaccinations and effective treatment.”
Police would be on patrol to make sure the rules were not broken.
The Andalusian government says a swift recovery of its tourism industry is essential as it brings in an estimated €170,000 million (£148,000 million) and represents 13 per cent of the gross domestic product.
In its “go it alone” plan, leaders also want shops to reopen on May 11, again with a time limit of 30 minutes for the smaller businesses and one hour for the larger ones. Sales campaigns would be banned and items could only be returned if disinfected.
Other proposals include the restarting of church services on May 3, walks for all the family from May 10 and proper funerals again from May 18 but still without wakes.
It also suggests different time sections for the departure of the elderly, between 9am and 2pm; and for children under 14, from 4pm to 9pm to avoid contagion between both groups.
The same time recommendation is proposed for the practice of individual sports activity, from 7am to 10am and from 8pm to 11pm, with a distance of five metres when walking, ten metres when running and 20 metres when cycling.
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The plan is being put to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez who has already indicated that the relaxation of the state of emergency rules and the so-called de-escalation phase will be different from region to region but the Andalusia vision still needs formal approval.
The Andalusian Government says it has a good evolution of figures in the fight against the pandemic, being the third autonomous community with the lowest incidence rates in cases per 100,000 inhabitants and has 135 deaths for every million inhabitants compared to 555 in the rest of Spain.
“It is a plan based on the decision of the experts and drawn up with a lot of common sense and a great sense of responsibility.
We hope that the Government will listen to us,” said the region’s vice-president Juan Marín.
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Ibiza, Majorca and Tenerife may be the first regions to come out of Spain’s lockdown first, according to the country’s health minister.
Salvador Illa explained during a conference that the restrictions would be lifted by “province, not by autonomous regions”.
He did add that there would be exceptions, according to Euro News Weekly, but didn’t explain for which region.
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