• Residents may only travel within the municipality to which they belong

At an emergency meeting of the Covid Monitoring Committee, the Murcia regional government has today, Wednesday, passed legislation closing both it’s internal borders between it’s 45 municipalities and it’s external border to neighbouring communities.

The borders have been closed as a result of the relentless rise in coronavirus infections in recent days, today touching almost a thousand cases, as well as the announcement of a possible “collapse in the health system”, together with the imminent arrival of the All Saints Day ‘long weekend’ holiday.

Community President López Miras said that he had decided to take action on the matter and close Murcia’s borders with the rest of the autonomous communities, thus restricting the mobility of residents, who may now only circulate within the municipality to which they belong.

Residents must have a justified cause to move between municipalities, such as going to their place of work, attending educational centres or universities, returning to their usual place of residence or force majeure. The measure is scheduled to last, at least two weeks and is scheduled to be introduced next Friday.

Alarms were first raised after the ‘neighbouring’ communities of Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha also put on the table the possibility of closing their own borders in moves that would last until 12 November.

Legislation will be published in the Official Gazette of the Region of Murcia (BORM) and will join the restrictions imposed last Sunday by the national government including the new state of alarm and the curfew from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.

Movement between municipalities must be justified, but the regional government has not clarified just what these justifications may be.

Meanwhile the Valencian Community has announced this afternoon that it will not close the three Valencian provinces, but rather those municipalities that have a high incidence rate due to the coronavirus.